You’d think I would be over visibility issues by now.
I consider myself to be a pretty aware person and as I’m also protective of my private life I know where my boundaries are and what/where I’m happy sharing.
Until…we recently moved to a new apartment that we absolutely love with a real sense of community. It’s the type of place where there are people from all different nationalities, people wave at each other and chat across balconies and are generally happily social (the old dude next door even checked all was ok when baby love was screaming her head off one day!).
Last week one of our neighbours opened a Facebook group so that we could all exchange and organise get togethers. I had a nosy around the FB group (as you do) to see who our neighbours ‘are’, what they do (some really interesting people) and then I realised…I’m right there too. My done up, professional photo shoot profile picture, my title ‘Business & Lifestyle Mentor’, the link to my page and website…
I suddenly felt super exposed.
And embarrassed.
The every day reality is that I don’t look like I do in my profile photo. Half the time the neighbours see me in baggy home clothes as I’m home with Leonie playing on the ground on the patio (more often than not with baby food stains on my top), or negotiating with our 3 year old.
Just a regular mum.
Not the business woman.
I felt vulnerable and felt the whole judgement thing come up again. I could feel my cells jumping up and down a little, you know that awkward feeling I’m talking about.
And then I remembered (not right away, but it came), that there’s also another side to this – that quite frankly, people have better things to do then compare the real me down there on the patio with my profile photo; that someone might actually go ‘wow, how interesting (and that’s why she’s home every day)!’ just as I did when I read what they do; maybe even lead to a business opportunity or two; or even ‘wow, she scrubs up well’ ha!
Ultimately though, my favourite motto ‘What others think of you is none of your business’.
So a reminder, no matter who you think might have it together, doesn’t 100% of the time. At different stages of your business new emotions will come up as well as old ones you thought you’d dealt with.
It’s ok. That’s the way it goes.
