Women | The School of Visibility

Lessons in irreplaceability by Coco Chanel

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. Gabrielle Chanel

Were you either picked on as a child or did you see other people get picked on for being different from the crowd? I clearly remember a game called ‘The odd one out’ where everyone would stand around in a circle and you’d wait for the instigator of the game to come up with a reason to reject you for being different.

Awful.

And, of course, it sent a clear message; ‘Do everything you can to fit in.’

Which is fine for some careers. But when you start your own business or you’re a creative, fitting in is a death nail in the coffin of your career. It’s vitally important that you stand out. That you’re memorable in some way.

You don’t have to be wildly different like Lady Gaga, but you do need to reach for those … [Read More...]

Are you fully expressed?

It all started last week when I was running the first of a series of energetic up-levelling classes around visibility with my ‘A Visible Woman’ students.

The classes take you through a process to identify your visibility ceiling; the place you just can’t seem to break through in the pursuit of being seen and heard by the people you’re here to reach.

That might look like reaching 1,000 subscribers, or 10,000 IG followers, or getting people to engage with your social posts, or scoring an interview on the podcast you really love.

Whatever it is, in the class you start by establishing where you currently are and then you work through a clearing process that sees you raising your energetic ceiling. That means that when you do hit that 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 you can comfortably sit in that level of visibility without freaking out and sabotaging yourself.… [Read More...]

The Visibility Compendium, May 2019

This month at the School of Visibility we focused on speaking up around controversial topics. We traversed racism, ageism, abortion, disruption of dominant narratives, and taking insufficient and/or too much responsibility in a world of blame and outrage.

Below is where you can scroll through everything we shared and catch up on all the goodness. So grab a cup of tea and let’s get into it!

FROM THE BLOG

I can’t say that, it’s too controversial!
[Topics: leadership | feminism | visibility]
‘To begin, it’s important to remember this about controversial topics; everything that’s really important in the world is controversial in some way.

Think about a few controversial moments in history:

The Suffragettes were ridiculed for being so ‘brazen’ as to presume women would have something valuable to contribute to the political arena.

The second wave of feminists were considered to be destroying families and stealing men’s jobs for

… [Read More...]

What does responsibility have to do with it?

In today’s Tuesday chat I speak about taking responsibility as the antidote to a world that’s almost exclusively focused on expressing blame and outrage.

I speak both about the ways that people in positions of privilege are refusing to take responsibility and the ways people who are not in positions of privilege are expected to take on too much responsibility. (NB: The internet connection cut out toward the end. So expect an abrupt halt to the conversation.)

Once you’ve watched the video, here are some guiding questions to consider;

Where am I not taking responsibility for the privileges I experience in society?
Where am I taking on too much responsibility on behalf of others experiencing privilege?

Question 1: Where am I not taking responsibility for the privileges I experience in society?

If you’ve ever found yourself being yelled at by a person who experiences less privilege than you, this is … [Read More...]

It’s time to disrupt the dominant narrative

This month at the School of Visibility we’re talking all about controversy. Namely what might be stopping you from speaking up about controversial topics.

Last week we covered some of the things to keep in mind when you’re contemplating speaking up about a controversial topic.

Today I’ve a specific question for you to ask yourself before you decide not to speak up about something controversial (or potentially controversial).

Before we dive into that question, I want to remind you of something. (Something that we explore for a whole day of the Visibility Challenge. A free challenge that we run a few times a year.)

In a world that prioritises one perspective – that of the white, ably bodied, heterosexual, economically secure males – all other voices are controversial. By virtue of there being one dominant perspective, all people who don’t fit within these parameters are sidelined as ‘other’.

Which … [Read More...]