September 23, 2025 • 28 mins
Authenticity, Resilience, and Visibility for Female Founders
This episode addresses the multifaceted challenges women face, especially as female founders.
The host discusses personal experiences with double standards, fear of cancel culture, and the conflict between professional and personal identities. The episode delves into a 2022 study from Oxford University Press highlighting higher standards for women in professional settings.
Key points covered include the importance of authenticity, the role of trust, resonance, and resilience, and practical ways to protect and amplify one's voice.
The episode concludes with actionable tips for female founders to balance their values, practice internal visibility, and build their reputations.
00:00 Introduction: Challenges Faced by Female Founders
02:00 Navigating Double Standards and Cancel Culture
03:51 Real-Life Examples and Academic Insights
11:42 Balancing Professional and Personal Identities
14:46 Building Trust, Resonance, and Resilience
19:51 Practical Tips for Authentic Visibility
26:17 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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
You're invited to my free 3-day workshop just for coaches and consultants who want to stand out online using their unique voice than creating content.
I'll walk you through the three things to focus on for 2025 and beyond, and how to find, activate and amplify your own voice. If you’re ready to turn your voice into visibility, sign up now—it’s completely free!
Solve your inner narrative with reframes to share your story without oversharing.
head to https://www.contenthalo.com/story/
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
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
the first thing that I will sayis that the challenges faced by
(00:05):
women are many and varied as weknow already.
As females we have addedpressures and unique challenges
that represent themselves inways that our male counterparts
just don't.
And so when it comes to our ownlittle businesses and being a
female founder, what I have cometo realize is.
(00:29):
That in my everyday life, I'veseen double standards take place
for, publishing my voice and, asa result being canceled for
that.
There is also the tie and thefracturedness between the
professional and the personalself.
And I know that there's a lot ofpeople who.
Be here wondering, well, I'vegot my business and do I
(00:52):
represent myself as my businessor do I represent myself as my
own voice, as a person who isbuilding their personal brand,
so to speak.
And then there is also the fearof cancel culture.
So as you get.
More prolific in sharing yourvoice.
As you get more prolific inputting yourself out there, you
(01:12):
actually do open yourself up toa lot more criticism, a lot more
backlash, and a lotmisinterpretation as well as.
You can end up feeling isolatedbecause of the fear from some
people that they, by associatingwith you, they may somehow be
(01:33):
tied by the same brush or itcould be also that, they fear
that a lot of people I've workedwith have, which is who does she
think she is putting herself outthere?
What, what point does she reallywant to prove?
And so there is this, quietdialogue that goes on in our own
minds as female founders.
Which can really put additionalpressure on why being our
(01:56):
authentic self is hard as a,especially as a female founder.
So I'm gonna really break down,the first three points, and then
what I'm gonna be doing is I'mgoing into why.
Authenticity still matters ifyou are a female founder, and
you are wanting to put yourauthentic voice out there.
And, then I'm gonna be givingyou some practical tips on and,
(02:20):
and ways in which you canprotect your voice as well as
show up authentically.
And lastly, I'm gonna becovering off on some practical
ways in which you can not onlyprotect your voice, but also
show up authentically, whilstinching your way forward
towards, a life in thevisibility fast lane as I like
to call it.
(02:40):
And so, first things first.
I really feel like I need toaddress this point head on
because.
This is something that I haveexperienced in my professional
life quite recently Where Ishared something that was about
giving context to a specificsituation that needed to be
explained in more detail, andinstead of being applauded for
(03:05):
my initiative, what ended uphappening instead was that I was
given personal kind of feedback,which was more intimating
towards my lack of.
Professional expertise despitethe fact that I belong in that
specific profession.
And so this is the way in whichthese are some of the ways in
(03:27):
which snide remarks and subtleputdowns can really get in the
way of you being able toactually express your.
Authentic voice in the way inwhich you know best how to do,
given that you have been giventhe baton or the permission to
speak or represent yourself asbeing a member of a profession
on which you are speaking onbehalf of.
(03:51):
So I wanna really discuss thefirst point, which is double
standards in my own, livedexperience.
And then I'm gonna give you somesome facts about a study that
was published by, the OxfordUniversity Press on Publishing
while female, which is our womenheld to higher standards.
And there is some evidence fromsome peer review.
(04:13):
It was published on the 16th ofMay, 2022.
It is the Economic Journal andthe publishers, the Oxford
University Press.
So I will be.
Sharing a little bit of that,but before I delve into giving
you a little bit of insight intowhat the findings are is this is
real life stuff that's actuallyhappening.
And the real life stuff that'shappening really is the fact
(04:36):
that after I shared that, I wasthen essentially wrapped on the
knuckles.
Not literally, but figurativelyto say that I didn't have the
authority to speak about thatand provide additional
information from my expertise ormy point of view despite
(04:56):
belonging to the group.
That has that expertise.
And so therefore, by being partof that professional, group, I
automatically have, the expertview coming from a personal
perspective that I can offer toprovide more context given that
(05:16):
I'm already part of thatprofessional setting.
So if I take.
Even that into account and theway in which that made me feel,
which was actually really torule by fear and cancel my
voice.
And it took me a really longtime.
To get over how I was treated,it really did help solidify.
(05:38):
The reason why I do what I do isbecause.
This is happening in real life.
This is not happening behind thescenes.
This is happening as I speak.
And so there are doublestandards so the comment that I
wanna make, is that in thatspecific instance, the feedback,
the verbal feedback that I gotwas done in a way to actually
(06:02):
undermine my confidence, so, youknow, if you think about that
and in relation to the, thestudy that was published that I
just mentioned earlier by theOxford University Press.
This study that was published,back in 2022, and it's in the,
it's in the links, in the shownotes if you're interested in,
in reading more about this, isthat women are in, in plain
(06:26):
words, women are held to ahigher standard with everything
that we do.
So if, if in my situation, if ithad been a male writing the same
thing, it would've carried a lotmore weight than.
Me writing it, which clearly didnot carry as much weight.
And there are many differentreasons for that, which I won't
(06:49):
delve into.
And it ha really does come downto visibility.
It comes down to being seen asbeing strong.
It really comes down to beingseen as having a voice which
could potentially threaten.
And it really comes down to allof those micro.
Moments of ego that need to beappeased and in order to
(07:12):
appease, you can end up losingyour authentic voice if you're
not careful and if you haven'tmade the time to process and
work through that, just like Ihave done in this particular
instance, and it has taken ahuge amount of strength and
courage on my part to keep goingdespite.
Having that backlash, and it'snot easy.
(07:32):
And so I, don't say, say thisout of, a theoretical framework
alone, operating from, a placewhere, you know, I'm just saying
yes, the yes, do it.
Yeah.
Yes, do it.
However, in doing it, you willbe opening yourself up to
criticism and you will beopening yourself up to backlash
and you will be opening yourselfup to misinterpretation.
(07:56):
In what I just mentionedearlier, which is when you do
project and want to be yourauthentic self, you will be
pulled back to the place wheresomeone wants you to be which is
exactly where they want you tobe, rather than where you want
to be.
And so it really does, bring tolight the injustices that.
(08:17):
Our omnipresent around us, whichlead to the rationale and the
reasoning behind why it's sodifficult to be your authentic
self because there are doublestandards for women.
So, coming back to the study,I'm going to be reading,
something out of thisparticular, the Economic
journal,, which is, Written byErin Hengel.
(08:43):
And the topic is publishingwhile female are women held to
higher standards.
It is an evidence from peerreview from the economic
journal, volume 1 32, issue 648, published in November of
2022.
And so if you wanna know moreand read more about that, it is
in the show notes below.
But I'm gonna read out someparts of the conclusion here,
(09:05):
which is that most raw numericalcounts suggest that women
produce less than men, femalereal estate agents, less, fewer
homes.
Female lawyers bill fewer hours.
Female physicians see fewerpatients.
Female academics write fewerpapers when evaluated by
narrowly defined qualitymeasures.
However, women often outperformhouses listed by female real
(09:28):
estate agents sell for higherprices.
Female lawyers make fewerethical violations.
Patients treated by femalephysicians are less likely to
die or be readmitted tohospital.
And as I argue in this paper,female economists surpass men on
another dimension, which iswriting.
Clarity.
Abstracts written by women areone to 6% more readable than
(09:52):
similar abstracts by men, andthey're also become two to 5%
more readable.
While under review when refereesare not blinded to authors
identities, however, and this isthe bit that really stings, is
that the cost to women ofrevising their papers appears to
be much higher than the cost tomen.
Female authored papers spentthree to six months longer under
(10:16):
review compared to observablyequivalent male authored papers.
Finally, it does not appear thatwomen are rewarded for their
better writing.
Recent evidence from a set ofcomparable journals suggests
that female authored papers areaccepted at lower rates,
conditional on quality.
Now, while this is set withinthe context of an academic
(10:37):
setting, it, you know, it reallydoes bring to light the fact
that.
Essentially women are, arejudged at at a higher level for
doing the same job.
And so when you come back toshowing up authentically it
really does, the doublestandards do play a part.
And I really just wanted tobring this, to life by citing an
(11:01):
actual study that has been donein this space.
Versus the actual day-to-dayreality of my own lived
experience and to showcase howthese two things are happening
side by side in the same.
Circumstance.
It may not be in this, in mysituation, it may not be an
academic article that I waswriting, but actually expressing
(11:24):
my point of view from being anexpert that belongs to a, a
specific profession, and yetbeing asked to hold back and,
not share something that was themost basic information, versus,
the double standard thatwould've happened had it been
somebody else.
Now.
I've got additional layers to myidentity that intersect and that
(11:47):
that intersection really isabout the fact that I'm not just
female, but I am a brown female.
I'm not just a brown female, butI'm a brown female from a
subcontinent that has a lot of,backlash in.
Many different places across theworld.
And so, I move forward with,knowing that my identity is very
(12:08):
much multidimensional becausethere are parts to myself that
are, and really going into thenext discussion, which is the
parts discussion, which is notonly your professional and your
personal identity, but in, youknow, your situation, wherever,
whichever walk of life you mightbe coming from, there might be
parts to yourself that are.
(12:29):
Multidimensional in the same wayas belonging to an ingroup or an
outgroup for, so what I mean bythat is.
You know, there, there are timesin my life when I felt like I
wanted to be the nurturer.
There's, there are times in mylife when I, when I feel
strongly like I want to be theentrepreneur, there are times in
my life where I want to be themission-driven, purpose-driven
(12:51):
person who wants to fight foraccords.
There, there are times in mylife where I'm conflicted by
being a mom and a wife, and themany other roles that I play
with the passion that I want topursue.
I feel as though women have alot to carry in this as female
founders, when they are puttingthemselves online, quite often
(13:13):
it comes to us with balancingthose competing priorities,
whatever they might be in ourlife.
The third point that I do wannapoint out is that you see a lot
of women who already have avoice, they're publishing,
they're saying.
Things that they wanna say.
They're showing up, they'redoing all of those things.
But that's not to say that itdoesn't come with its fair share
(13:34):
of pound of flesh.
It comes with opening yourselfup to backlash.
It does come with isolation.
It comes with having tosometimes defend yourself.
And in the quiet ways in whichsome of those backlashes, they
don't always have to be trollson social media.
Some of those can actually be inpersonal, put downs and snide
(13:57):
remarks.
So those are all of the thingsthat, we as women have to take
into account as we are puttingour authentic selves out there.
But the, it always comes backdown to, and I always circle
back to, well, why is thisimportant?
And it's really importantbecause.
At the end of the day, youcannot build a business at the
(14:19):
end of a cul-de-sac.
You have to, and what I mean, acul-de-sac, where for those of
you who might be outside of, theAustralasian area, it really
means at the end of a street andthe quiet, quiet end of the
street where no one's gonna findyou.
And so, it really comes down tothree things.
One is trust.
The other is resonance.
And the third one is resilience.
And the first one being that.
(14:42):
If content is king, then contextis the crown.
And so I just now wanna talkabout why, despite having heard
all of the challenges stillmatters and the reason being
that it's a three step processthat I mentioned earlier, which
is trust, resonance, andresilience.
Really, it comes down to thefact that as female founders, we
(15:03):
are looking for our clients andcustomers to be able to trust
us.
And now trust is born in twodifferent ways.
Trust is born from whethersomeone feels that the message
and the way you are articulatingwhat it is that you wanna say.
So everything that's in yourhead that you can then express
(15:24):
into either the words that youuse, whether that be on video,
whether that be in a writtenformat, are words that are
actually going to resonate withthe people that you are looking
to come to you.
And for them to actually be ableto work with you.
And so that requires a certaindegree of trust in your voice,
(15:47):
not only in your own voice, butalso trust that is born out of,
firstly, if you're showing uporganically, is that trust based
on how you show up consistentlyand that consistency.
Is whether or not you show upbased on how you feel about
showing up in the first place,or it's linked to how you feel
(16:10):
day by day.
So for example, if you don'tfeel like showing up on one day
because you've got things goingon and life takes over, then.
Obviously that can end upbreaking the chain of
consistency.
One day goes into two, two goesinto 3, 5, 7, 2 weeks, three
weeks, and before you know it,you've actually lost momentum.
And I'm sure that for some ofyou listening in, this will
(16:34):
sound like, yep, that's mebecause, and the reason I say
that is because that has exactlybeen me is that even though I
want to show up.
There are equities andinequities in my life that I
have to balance which reallydoes play into whether or not I
can show up in the way I reallywant to.
(16:55):
And so the link that I reallywanna make here is that your
emotional state will reallyreflect on how you show up and
why.
Really, you need a level ofconsistency, coaching, and
guidance to actually keep youaccountable through the, what I
call the visibility journeytowards inching, towards the
visibility fast lane.
Whether that be showing up moreconsistently, organically, or
(17:20):
whether you are creating acontent bank to then eventually
go in and create.
Video assets so that people canthen start hearing your voice in
multiple places and so thatyou're omnipresent in their
environment and your voicebecomes the trusted voice as a
result of you building trust inyour own voice.
You being able to articulateyour message in a way that needs
(17:43):
to be heard.
Taking into account the equitiesand inequities in your life that
may be playing a part based onall of the things that I've
shared already.
And so that trust is what'sactually going to help bring you
more clients, bring you moreleads, bring you more inquiries
increase your attraction,increase your magnetism, and
(18:03):
help you go from a state ofbeing in fear.
To being in flow and ease.
And that comes with knowing thatthere is discomfort to be had by
sharing the voice despite all ofthe roadblocks and challenges
that I've actually mentioned inthis episode already.
And so if I think about thatrelation to my second point,
(18:25):
which is resonance, and I knowthat there is a lot of.
AI slop out there.
You can create content with ai,absolutely.
If that's you, then go for yourlife.
But really what it really comesdown to, which is the point I
made earlier, which is ifcontent is king, then context is
the crown.
Which is that the cherry on topthat's now gonna make a
(18:47):
difference between you andsomebody else who does the same
thing as you is actually goingto be.
The way in which you frame whatit is that you do and how you
frame what it is that you do isactually dependent, not only.
On how you describe what you do,which is different to say
somebody else offering the samething, but also in the
(19:10):
consistency in which how youshow up that is not necessarily
reliant entirely on youremotional state.
So that's the second takeawayfor you on really leaning into
embracing that authentic voiceand the reason why your voice
still matters, despite knowingthe challenges that are
omnipresent all around us.
(19:30):
The third one being resilience.
I think the more we own ourvoice, the more we talk about
what we do, the more we stand upand speak up for the things that
we believe in and share ourpoint of view, despite feeling
like we might be canceled.
It actually does help you towithstand criticism, and build
resilience in yourself.
(19:51):
And really being able to backyourself as a female founder,
really back your business aswell so the next thing that I'm
gonna be sharing is how youmight be able to move forward
despite the fact that you haveall of these things at play I'm
gonna be sharing the five waysin which you can not only
(20:12):
protect your voice and also showup authentically.
So the first one being anchoringin your.
Values, and I know this getsused or overused quite a lot,
but it's really what keeps yougrounded when fear arises.
It's really knowing, what you'restanding for what things are you
gonna, keep on doing this.
(20:32):
Spike, all of that.
What's keeping you sad?
If there are things in your lifethat are making you sad, you
only really have to lookinternally and check out what
your real values are.
And I put values down as a, deckof cards at any one point, your
delta hand from the deck ofcards or a set of values that
you have.
(20:53):
And the three to four valuesthat are in operation are
usually.
More, omnipresent at certaintimes in your life, which is to
say that the hand that you getdealt with for your values gets
swapped around based on theseason of your life and what's
most important to you at thattime.
And for me, it really has been aconnection that has been lacking
(21:14):
in my life for a really longtime.
And so the steps and themeasures that I will take is.
Intentionally building andopening myself up.
To more connection as a way ofliving out my values.
And when I start doing that on aregular basis, I start to see
that my sadness will start todecrease because I'm actually
(21:37):
playing into an, and my valuesare an action rather than just
static and theoretical.
So that is the one thing.
And if you are interested inknowing how you can find your
true voice, which is very deeplyaligned with your deck of cards
or values and operational, whatyou're optimizing towards.
Then send me a message.
I would love to hear from you.
You can either reach out to meat Ika Lucas on LinkedIn, or you
(22:01):
can reach out to me on atContent Halo on Instagram.
And I would love to hear fromyou to even understand what your
values might be and how thisvisibility journey could help
you.
So that's that's one.
The second one is practiceinternal visibility.
What I mean by internalvisibility is that.
You can have private journals.
I have stacks of journals that Iwrite all my thoughts in.
(22:24):
I have a journal on my phone.
I have a written journal becausethere are times when I just
wanna type away if I'm away frommy physical book.
And then there are times when Ijust wanna write about things.
Maybe it's on a early on aSaturday morning, early on, a
Sunday morning.
I'm an early riser that worksfor me.
Do what's best for you, but pr,private voice notes to yourself
(22:45):
private journals, practicinginternal visibility is a really
huge and will be a really hugebenefit to you as you're
navigating this road towardsvisibility in the fast lane, as
I like to call it.
And then share with clarityrather than urgency.
I know that there's a lot ofpressure out there to.
(23:05):
Be consistent, show up, da dah.
There are times and seasons inyour life where not being
overtly visible is actually agood thing because you are being
visible to yourself.
And when I talk about beingvisible to yourself, it's about
putting self-care and self-lovepractices in place where
something feels misaligned.
You've really gotta breathe lifeinto it and give enough time for
(23:28):
it to work its way through.
Four, you can embrace visibilityin the fast lane.
The fourth one is really ownyour humanity.
I think.
I feel like a lot of the women Iwork with in particular put a
lot of pressure on themselves todo the right thing.
They're often.
People who have either been inprivate practice, have their own
(23:49):
flourishing business and, havehad to do quite a lot and of
giving away a lot of themselvesto get.
To where they got to and thenhave come to the realization
that actually they've given toomuch away of themselves in a
bit.
And now they're in a bit toreclaim some of that.
And if that's you listening intoday, it's just know that it's
(24:12):
okay for you to be.
Human It's okay to be vulnerableand for you to be able to
process your inner narrative ina way that actually helps you
become more visible.
By having a low visibilitytechnique, which is really
embracing your inner voice firstbefore you project anything out
(24:36):
to the outside world.
So if you're curious about that,have a look at the links in my
show notes.
There's you can head to contenthalo.com/story to get your, how
to share your Story WithoutOversharing Guide, which
actually runs you through howyou can resolve that inner
narrative that you have foryourself.
The second thing that and thenthe last thing I wanna say is
(24:58):
that, really focus on building areputation rather than just
leaning on recognition.
And I wanna quantify that withinthe social media space by saying
that.
If you're on social media, therewill be a pressure on you to
post in a way that actuallyearns you more likes and
comments.
And while that's fine you needto do that every once in a
(25:19):
while.
It's actually not a bad thing todo.
Virality is not a bad thing byany means.
But don't optimize for that outof the gate if you are still
coming to terms with how to bevisible.
You can't go from being zero to100 or 200 miles or kilometers
an hour.
If you are at, if you are juststarting out, for instance, you
(25:40):
are going to have to workthrough the journey of getting
to where you are, to where youwanna be by taking the steps and
measures that you need to closethat authenticity gap that you
might have for yourself because,you might feel.
A hundred percent authentic toyou, and you are already living
out your values naturally, butperhaps you just don't know how
(26:01):
to amplify them.
But in doing so, if you've got asteep learning curve, you've
gotta allow for that steeplearning curve to actually
happen first.
Before you get intoamplification so you don't end
up in the same cycle that youwere trying to escape in the
first place.
So I hope that you have enjoyedthis episode as much as I have
enjoyed creating it.
(26:22):
If you have loved.
Getting the insights I wouldlove it if you could leave me a
review for this and I would alsolove to hear from you.
If you have any thoughts aboutthis episode, what you thought
about it, whether you enjoyed itsend me a note on at Content
Halo, and I would love to beable to send you a guide where
you can amplify your voice andgo further.
(26:42):
With that being said, thanksvery much and I'll see you in
the next episode.
the first thing that I will sayis that the challenges faced by
(00:05):
women are many and varied as weknow already.
As females we have addedpressures and unique challenges
that represent themselves inways that our male counterparts
just don't.
And so when it comes to our ownlittle businesses and being a
female founder, what I have cometo realize is.
(00:29):
That in my everyday life, I'veseen double standards take place
for, publishing my voice and, asa result being canceled for
that.
There is also the tie and thefracturedness between the
professional and the personalself.
And I know that there's a lot ofpeople who.
Be here wondering, well, I'vegot my business and do I
(00:52):
represent myself as my businessor do I represent myself as my
own voice, as a person who isbuilding their personal brand,
so to speak.
And then there is also the fearof cancel culture.
So as you get.
More prolific in sharing yourvoice.
As you get more prolific inputting yourself out there, you
(01:12):
actually do open yourself up toa lot more criticism, a lot more
backlash, and a lotmisinterpretation as well as.
You can end up feeling isolatedbecause of the fear from some
people that they, by associatingwith you, they may somehow be
(01:33):
tied by the same brush or itcould be also that, they fear
that a lot of people I've workedwith have, which is who does she
think she is putting herself outthere?
What, what point does she reallywant to prove?
And so there is this, quietdialogue that goes on in our own
minds as female founders.
Which can really put additionalpressure on why being our
(01:56):
authentic self is hard as a,especially as a female founder.
So I'm gonna really break down,the first three points, and then
what I'm gonna be doing is I'mgoing into why.
Authenticity still matters ifyou are a female founder, and
you are wanting to put yourauthentic voice out there.
And, then I'm gonna be givingyou some practical tips on and,
(02:20):
and ways in which you canprotect your voice as well as
show up authentically.
And lastly, I'm gonna becovering off on some practical
ways in which you can not onlyprotect your voice, but also
show up authentically, whilstinching your way forward
towards, a life in thevisibility fast lane as I like
to call it.
(02:40):
And so, first things first.
I really feel like I need toaddress this point head on
because.
This is something that I haveexperienced in my professional
life quite recently Where Ishared something that was about
giving context to a specificsituation that needed to be
explained in more detail, andinstead of being applauded for
(03:05):
my initiative, what ended uphappening instead was that I was
given personal kind of feedback,which was more intimating
towards my lack of.
Professional expertise despitethe fact that I belong in that
specific profession.
And so this is the way in whichthese are some of the ways in
(03:27):
which snide remarks and subtleputdowns can really get in the
way of you being able toactually express your.
Authentic voice in the way inwhich you know best how to do,
given that you have been giventhe baton or the permission to
speak or represent yourself asbeing a member of a profession
on which you are speaking onbehalf of.
(03:51):
So I wanna really discuss thefirst point, which is double
standards in my own, livedexperience.
And then I'm gonna give you somesome facts about a study that
was published by, the OxfordUniversity Press on Publishing
while female, which is our womenheld to higher standards.
And there is some evidence fromsome peer review.
(04:13):
It was published on the 16th ofMay, 2022.
It is the Economic Journal andthe publishers, the Oxford
University Press.
So I will be.
Sharing a little bit of that,but before I delve into giving
you a little bit of insight intowhat the findings are is this is
real life stuff that's actuallyhappening.
And the real life stuff that'shappening really is the fact
(04:36):
that after I shared that, I wasthen essentially wrapped on the
knuckles.
Not literally, but figurativelyto say that I didn't have the
authority to speak about thatand provide additional
information from my expertise ormy point of view despite
(04:56):
belonging to the group.
That has that expertise.
And so therefore, by being partof that professional, group, I
automatically have, the expertview coming from a personal
perspective that I can offer toprovide more context given that
(05:16):
I'm already part of thatprofessional setting.
So if I take.
Even that into account and theway in which that made me feel,
which was actually really torule by fear and cancel my
voice.
And it took me a really longtime.
To get over how I was treated,it really did help solidify.
(05:38):
The reason why I do what I do isbecause.
This is happening in real life.
This is not happening behind thescenes.
This is happening as I speak.
And so there are doublestandards so the comment that I
wanna make, is that in thatspecific instance, the feedback,
the verbal feedback that I gotwas done in a way to actually
(06:02):
undermine my confidence, so, youknow, if you think about that
and in relation to the, thestudy that was published that I
just mentioned earlier by theOxford University Press.
This study that was published,back in 2022, and it's in the,
it's in the links, in the shownotes if you're interested in,
in reading more about this, isthat women are in, in plain
(06:26):
words, women are held to ahigher standard with everything
that we do.
So if, if in my situation, if ithad been a male writing the same
thing, it would've carried a lotmore weight than.
Me writing it, which clearly didnot carry as much weight.
And there are many differentreasons for that, which I won't
(06:49):
delve into.
And it ha really does come downto visibility.
It comes down to being seen asbeing strong.
It really comes down to beingseen as having a voice which
could potentially threaten.
And it really comes down to allof those micro.
Moments of ego that need to beappeased and in order to
(07:12):
appease, you can end up losingyour authentic voice if you're
not careful and if you haven'tmade the time to process and
work through that, just like Ihave done in this particular
instance, and it has taken ahuge amount of strength and
courage on my part to keep goingdespite.
Having that backlash, and it'snot easy.
(07:32):
And so I, don't say, say thisout of, a theoretical framework
alone, operating from, a placewhere, you know, I'm just saying
yes, the yes, do it.
Yeah.
Yes, do it.
However, in doing it, you willbe opening yourself up to
criticism and you will beopening yourself up to backlash
and you will be opening yourselfup to misinterpretation.
(07:56):
In what I just mentionedearlier, which is when you do
project and want to be yourauthentic self, you will be
pulled back to the place wheresomeone wants you to be which is
exactly where they want you tobe, rather than where you want
to be.
And so it really does, bring tolight the injustices that.
(08:17):
Our omnipresent around us, whichlead to the rationale and the
reasoning behind why it's sodifficult to be your authentic
self because there are doublestandards for women.
So, coming back to the study,I'm going to be reading,
something out of thisparticular, the Economic
journal,, which is, Written byErin Hengel.
(08:43):
And the topic is publishingwhile female are women held to
higher standards.
It is an evidence from peerreview from the economic
journal, volume 1 32, issue 648, published in November of
2022.
And so if you wanna know moreand read more about that, it is
in the show notes below.
But I'm gonna read out someparts of the conclusion here,
(09:05):
which is that most raw numericalcounts suggest that women
produce less than men, femalereal estate agents, less, fewer
homes.
Female lawyers bill fewer hours.
Female physicians see fewerpatients.
Female academics write fewerpapers when evaluated by
narrowly defined qualitymeasures.
However, women often outperformhouses listed by female real
(09:28):
estate agents sell for higherprices.
Female lawyers make fewerethical violations.
Patients treated by femalephysicians are less likely to
die or be readmitted tohospital.
And as I argue in this paper,female economists surpass men on
another dimension, which iswriting.
Clarity.
Abstracts written by women areone to 6% more readable than
(09:52):
similar abstracts by men, andthey're also become two to 5%
more readable.
While under review when refereesare not blinded to authors
identities, however, and this isthe bit that really stings, is
that the cost to women ofrevising their papers appears to
be much higher than the cost tomen.
Female authored papers spentthree to six months longer under
(10:16):
review compared to observablyequivalent male authored papers.
Finally, it does not appear thatwomen are rewarded for their
better writing.
Recent evidence from a set ofcomparable journals suggests
that female authored papers areaccepted at lower rates,
conditional on quality.
Now, while this is set withinthe context of an academic
(10:37):
setting, it, you know, it reallydoes bring to light the fact
that.
Essentially women are, arejudged at at a higher level for
doing the same job.
And so when you come back toshowing up authentically it
really does, the doublestandards do play a part.
And I really just wanted tobring this, to life by citing an
(11:01):
actual study that has been donein this space.
Versus the actual day-to-dayreality of my own lived
experience and to showcase howthese two things are happening
side by side in the same.
Circumstance.
It may not be in this, in mysituation, it may not be an
academic article that I waswriting, but actually expressing
(11:24):
my point of view from being anexpert that belongs to a, a
specific profession, and yetbeing asked to hold back and,
not share something that was themost basic information, versus,
the double standard thatwould've happened had it been
somebody else.
Now.
I've got additional layers to myidentity that intersect and that
(11:47):
that intersection really isabout the fact that I'm not just
female, but I am a brown female.
I'm not just a brown female, butI'm a brown female from a
subcontinent that has a lot of,backlash in.
Many different places across theworld.
And so, I move forward with,knowing that my identity is very
(12:08):
much multidimensional becausethere are parts to myself that
are, and really going into thenext discussion, which is the
parts discussion, which is notonly your professional and your
personal identity, but in, youknow, your situation, wherever,
whichever walk of life you mightbe coming from, there might be
parts to yourself that are.
(12:29):
Multidimensional in the same wayas belonging to an ingroup or an
outgroup for, so what I mean bythat is.
You know, there, there are timesin my life when I felt like I
wanted to be the nurturer.
There's, there are times in mylife when I, when I feel
strongly like I want to be theentrepreneur, there are times in
my life where I want to be themission-driven, purpose-driven
(12:51):
person who wants to fight foraccords.
There, there are times in mylife where I'm conflicted by
being a mom and a wife, and themany other roles that I play
with the passion that I want topursue.
I feel as though women have alot to carry in this as female
founders, when they are puttingthemselves online, quite often
(13:13):
it comes to us with balancingthose competing priorities,
whatever they might be in ourlife.
The third point that I do wannapoint out is that you see a lot
of women who already have avoice, they're publishing,
they're saying.
Things that they wanna say.
They're showing up, they'redoing all of those things.
But that's not to say that itdoesn't come with its fair share
(13:34):
of pound of flesh.
It comes with opening yourselfup to backlash.
It does come with isolation.
It comes with having tosometimes defend yourself.
And in the quiet ways in whichsome of those backlashes, they
don't always have to be trollson social media.
Some of those can actually be inpersonal, put downs and snide
(13:57):
remarks.
So those are all of the thingsthat, we as women have to take
into account as we are puttingour authentic selves out there.
But the, it always comes backdown to, and I always circle
back to, well, why is thisimportant?
And it's really importantbecause.
At the end of the day, youcannot build a business at the
(14:19):
end of a cul-de-sac.
You have to, and what I mean, acul-de-sac, where for those of
you who might be outside of, theAustralasian area, it really
means at the end of a street andthe quiet, quiet end of the
street where no one's gonna findyou.
And so, it really comes down tothree things.
One is trust.
The other is resonance.
And the third one is resilience.
And the first one being that.
(14:42):
If content is king, then contextis the crown.
And so I just now wanna talkabout why, despite having heard
all of the challenges stillmatters and the reason being
that it's a three step processthat I mentioned earlier, which
is trust, resonance, andresilience.
Really, it comes down to thefact that as female founders, we
(15:03):
are looking for our clients andcustomers to be able to trust
us.
And now trust is born in twodifferent ways.
Trust is born from whethersomeone feels that the message
and the way you are articulatingwhat it is that you wanna say.
So everything that's in yourhead that you can then express
(15:24):
into either the words that youuse, whether that be on video,
whether that be in a writtenformat, are words that are
actually going to resonate withthe people that you are looking
to come to you.
And for them to actually be ableto work with you.
And so that requires a certaindegree of trust in your voice,
(15:47):
not only in your own voice, butalso trust that is born out of,
firstly, if you're showing uporganically, is that trust based
on how you show up consistentlyand that consistency.
Is whether or not you show upbased on how you feel about
showing up in the first place,or it's linked to how you feel
(16:10):
day by day.
So for example, if you don'tfeel like showing up on one day
because you've got things goingon and life takes over, then.
Obviously that can end upbreaking the chain of
consistency.
One day goes into two, two goesinto 3, 5, 7, 2 weeks, three
weeks, and before you know it,you've actually lost momentum.
And I'm sure that for some ofyou listening in, this will
(16:34):
sound like, yep, that's mebecause, and the reason I say
that is because that has exactlybeen me is that even though I
want to show up.
There are equities andinequities in my life that I
have to balance which reallydoes play into whether or not I
can show up in the way I reallywant to.
(16:55):
And so the link that I reallywanna make here is that your
emotional state will reallyreflect on how you show up and
why.
Really, you need a level ofconsistency, coaching, and
guidance to actually keep youaccountable through the, what I
call the visibility journeytowards inching, towards the
visibility fast lane.
Whether that be showing up moreconsistently, organically, or
(17:20):
whether you are creating acontent bank to then eventually
go in and create.
Video assets so that people canthen start hearing your voice in
multiple places and so thatyou're omnipresent in their
environment and your voicebecomes the trusted voice as a
result of you building trust inyour own voice.
You being able to articulateyour message in a way that needs
(17:43):
to be heard.
Taking into account the equitiesand inequities in your life that
may be playing a part based onall of the things that I've
shared already.
And so that trust is what'sactually going to help bring you
more clients, bring you moreleads, bring you more inquiries
increase your attraction,increase your magnetism, and
(18:03):
help you go from a state ofbeing in fear.
To being in flow and ease.
And that comes with knowing thatthere is discomfort to be had by
sharing the voice despite all ofthe roadblocks and challenges
that I've actually mentioned inthis episode already.
And so if I think about thatrelation to my second point,
(18:25):
which is resonance, and I knowthat there is a lot of.
AI slop out there.
You can create content with ai,absolutely.
If that's you, then go for yourlife.
But really what it really comesdown to, which is the point I
made earlier, which is ifcontent is king, then context is
the crown.
Which is that the cherry on topthat's now gonna make a
(18:47):
difference between you andsomebody else who does the same
thing as you is actually goingto be.
The way in which you frame whatit is that you do and how you
frame what it is that you do isactually dependent, not only.
On how you describe what you do,which is different to say
somebody else offering the samething, but also in the
(19:10):
consistency in which how youshow up that is not necessarily
reliant entirely on youremotional state.
So that's the second takeawayfor you on really leaning into
embracing that authentic voiceand the reason why your voice
still matters, despite knowingthe challenges that are
omnipresent all around us.
(19:30):
The third one being resilience.
I think the more we own ourvoice, the more we talk about
what we do, the more we stand upand speak up for the things that
we believe in and share ourpoint of view, despite feeling
like we might be canceled.
It actually does help you towithstand criticism, and build
resilience in yourself.
(19:51):
And really being able to backyourself as a female founder,
really back your business aswell so the next thing that I'm
gonna be sharing is how youmight be able to move forward
despite the fact that you haveall of these things at play I'm
gonna be sharing the five waysin which you can not only
(20:12):
protect your voice and also showup authentically.
So the first one being anchoringin your.
Values, and I know this getsused or overused quite a lot,
but it's really what keeps yougrounded when fear arises.
It's really knowing, what you'restanding for what things are you
gonna, keep on doing this.
(20:32):
Spike, all of that.
What's keeping you sad?
If there are things in your lifethat are making you sad, you
only really have to lookinternally and check out what
your real values are.
And I put values down as a, deckof cards at any one point, your
delta hand from the deck ofcards or a set of values that
you have.
(20:53):
And the three to four valuesthat are in operation are
usually.
More, omnipresent at certaintimes in your life, which is to
say that the hand that you getdealt with for your values gets
swapped around based on theseason of your life and what's
most important to you at thattime.
And for me, it really has been aconnection that has been lacking
(21:14):
in my life for a really longtime.
And so the steps and themeasures that I will take is.
Intentionally building andopening myself up.
To more connection as a way ofliving out my values.
And when I start doing that on aregular basis, I start to see
that my sadness will start todecrease because I'm actually
(21:37):
playing into an, and my valuesare an action rather than just
static and theoretical.
So that is the one thing.
And if you are interested inknowing how you can find your
true voice, which is very deeplyaligned with your deck of cards
or values and operational, whatyou're optimizing towards.
Then send me a message.
I would love to hear from you.
You can either reach out to meat Ika Lucas on LinkedIn, or you
(22:01):
can reach out to me on atContent Halo on Instagram.
And I would love to hear fromyou to even understand what your
values might be and how thisvisibility journey could help
you.
So that's that's one.
The second one is practiceinternal visibility.
What I mean by internalvisibility is that.
You can have private journals.
I have stacks of journals that Iwrite all my thoughts in.
(22:24):
I have a journal on my phone.
I have a written journal becausethere are times when I just
wanna type away if I'm away frommy physical book.
And then there are times when Ijust wanna write about things.
Maybe it's on a early on aSaturday morning, early on, a
Sunday morning.
I'm an early riser that worksfor me.
Do what's best for you, but pr,private voice notes to yourself
(22:45):
private journals, practicinginternal visibility is a really
huge and will be a really hugebenefit to you as you're
navigating this road towardsvisibility in the fast lane, as
I like to call it.
And then share with clarityrather than urgency.
I know that there's a lot ofpressure out there to.
(23:05):
Be consistent, show up, da dah.
There are times and seasons inyour life where not being
overtly visible is actually agood thing because you are being
visible to yourself.
And when I talk about beingvisible to yourself, it's about
putting self-care and self-lovepractices in place where
something feels misaligned.
You've really gotta breathe lifeinto it and give enough time for
(23:28):
it to work its way through.
Four, you can embrace visibilityin the fast lane.
The fourth one is really ownyour humanity.
I think.
I feel like a lot of the women Iwork with in particular put a
lot of pressure on themselves todo the right thing.
They're often.
People who have either been inprivate practice, have their own
(23:49):
flourishing business and, havehad to do quite a lot and of
giving away a lot of themselvesto get.
To where they got to and thenhave come to the realization
that actually they've given toomuch away of themselves in a
bit.
And now they're in a bit toreclaim some of that.
And if that's you listening intoday, it's just know that it's
(24:12):
okay for you to be.
Human It's okay to be vulnerableand for you to be able to
process your inner narrative ina way that actually helps you
become more visible.
By having a low visibilitytechnique, which is really
embracing your inner voice firstbefore you project anything out
(24:36):
to the outside world.
So if you're curious about that,have a look at the links in my
show notes.
There's you can head to contenthalo.com/story to get your, how
to share your Story WithoutOversharing Guide, which
actually runs you through howyou can resolve that inner
narrative that you have foryourself.
The second thing that and thenthe last thing I wanna say is
(24:58):
that, really focus on building areputation rather than just
leaning on recognition.
And I wanna quantify that withinthe social media space by saying
that.
If you're on social media, therewill be a pressure on you to
post in a way that actuallyearns you more likes and
comments.
And while that's fine you needto do that every once in a
(25:19):
while.
It's actually not a bad thing todo.
Virality is not a bad thing byany means.
But don't optimize for that outof the gate if you are still
coming to terms with how to bevisible.
You can't go from being zero to100 or 200 miles or kilometers
an hour.
If you are at, if you are juststarting out, for instance, you
(25:40):
are going to have to workthrough the journey of getting
to where you are, to where youwanna be by taking the steps and
measures that you need to closethat authenticity gap that you
might have for yourself because,you might feel.
A hundred percent authentic toyou, and you are already living
out your values naturally, butperhaps you just don't know how
(26:01):
to amplify them.
But in doing so, if you've got asteep learning curve, you've
gotta allow for that steeplearning curve to actually
happen first.
Before you get intoamplification so you don't end
up in the same cycle that youwere trying to escape in the
first place.
So I hope that you have enjoyedthis episode as much as I have
enjoyed creating it.
(26:22):
If you have loved.
Getting the insights I wouldlove it if you could leave me a
review for this and I would alsolove to hear from you.
If you have any thoughts aboutthis episode, what you thought
about it, whether you enjoyed itsend me a note on at Content
Halo, and I would love to beable to send you a guide where
you can amplify your voice andgo further.
(26:42):
With that being said, thanksvery much and I'll see you in
the next episode.
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