#89 - How to Stay Visible on Social Media Without Performing: A Mindset Shift for Solopreneurs"

Is social media and being online feeling like a heavy lift or a performance these days? You're not alone, especially in today’s polarized, noisy digital world.

In this solo episode of Mindset to Market, I'm breaking down how to show up online authentically, without burnout or pretending. This conversation is perfect for the mission-driven solopreneur who wants to be visible without compromising integrity. 

Listen and learn:

• Why posting on social can feel so high-stakes right now (and what to do about it)
• How to reframe visibility as service instead of performance
• The ONE question to ask when you don’t know what to post
• A simple way to stay visible that actually builds trust and converts
• How to craft a lead magnet that serves your audience without shouting on the ‘gram

📌 Plus: Register for my free class, How to Create a Bingeable Digital Product — happening Wednesday, Sept. 24th at 7 pm ET. 

This is the perfect next step if you’re ready to stay visible while building a powerful top-of-funnel asset.

👀 You don’t need to dance on Reels or be louder than the algorithm. You just need to solve real problems for real people.

Tune in and reclaim your visibility. 

Mindset to Market is a Luminous Creative Production. If you'd like to learn more about our business coaching program and group coaching container, please visit us online at DeborahcSmith.com.

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Mindset to Market is produced by Deborah C. Smith and designed to inspire and support big-hearted creatives in finding their own unique path, building a sustainable business, and creating financial, spiritual, mental wellness and abundance.

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Transcript

 Greetings, friends. Today's episode is gonna zero in on how to stay visible in the online space, on social media, and in general without performing right, without faking it. And this is really a mindset shift for solopreneurs that's guaranteed to help you navigate the way you're approaching. Showing up and staying visible.

So let's get right into it. Hey there, and welcome to the Mindset To Market Podcast, your go-to place for practical tools and solutions for the everyday challenges of being a creative and spiritual solopreneur living in a material world. I'm your host. Deborah Smith. I'm a holistic business coach with 17 years of experience, and I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and build a daily practice that prioritizes your business's financial growth as well as your personal health and wellness.

I'm here to offer you support, creativity, mindset, practical how-tos, and getting into imperfect messy actions so you can find balance while building the dream. Business. If you're a purpose-driven solepreneur, who's working on that dream one day at a time, then you're in the right place. Let's dive in. All right, friends, we are back with another weekly episode of Mindset to Market.

Thank you so much for joining me here. Let's just name what is Real right now. Now I'm speaking from my point of view, obviously, but I feel like this is relevant to everyone. The online space. Feels heavy and high stakes, right? More than usual because we've really entered a new era of how social media is being used and how it's being perceived.

It's extremely polarizing and it's difficult to navigate, so we have to talk about it. We have to address this issue. It's not going away. And the fact is, you are trying to run a business, right? You have something to share with the world, and this. The fact is that social media, like it or not, is a free way to reach a million eyeballs and get people's attention.

So whether you are like me and you don't rely on social media as the mechanism to grow and and run your business, you're still probably using it for visibility. But every time you go to post something, it feels like a lose lose situation, right? You're either worrying that promoting your work is gonna come off as tone deaf or inauthentic, or.

You know how polarizing sharing your opinion can be. You feel really compelled to share your opinion, but sharing your honest opinion feels really risky, right? There's a fear of being canceled or starting an unintentional argument with somebody that's real. It's really real. And so many people who I have been talking to recently who are heart-centered, mission-driven, like really purpose-driven solopreneurs who have invested a lot of time and in some cases, a lot of money to launch a business where they can be of service.

They're saying things like, I feel paralyzed. I don't wanna pretend that nothing's happening in the world, like politically. Uh, there's so much worse stuff going on that I, I feel horrible talking about my, like my little business. But also I need to show up. I need to be seen, I need to build. Trust with my audience, I, I feel like I need to be visible.

So with that paradox happening, it's no wonder people are afraid to post online and like, talk about their business, which may seem inconsequential in comparison to, you know, being on the brink of a civil war witnessing, you know, horrific things happening in other countries and in our own country. Like, it's just a tough time to be visible.

So I am talking about this because this. It's something that I've, of course, dealt with. I've been using the online space to promote products for 20 years. Um, I wanna say this very clearly. You are not crazy for feeling this way, for feeling this tension. If you feel conflicted about social media, you're not crazy, right?

The landscape has changed. It's no longer just social. It's not even any longer just shopping right now. It's really polarized. So what that means is that people are more cautious, right? We're more sensitive to people's words. We're more aware than ever before, which honestly is not a bad thing. That's a pretty good thing, I think, if for society at large and for, you know, being a neighbor and being a human.

But it does require a shift in how we think about our visibility because the people who are just pushing out content, like it's still 2019. Honestly, the, the echoes that I hear reverberating in conversations. Is that those people are losing trust, right? And that translates to losing sales. So I'm talking about some of these bigger name gurus in the space who have been at this forever, who have just chosen to not publicize their opinions or values, who are not leading with values.

Um, there's also been some very high profile people who have decided to pour their heart out there and share their values, and they also had. Major backlash. So it's really, like I said, it's a really tough situation, but the people who have gone quiet completely, they're losing momentum. So where does that leave us?

That leaves us somewhere in the middle looking for a new way to show up online that feels authentic and that actually helps people, right? You didn't start your business to be, to have like a good high follower account on the, on Instagram. You didn't start your business to run up numbers on your YouTube channel.

In theory, you started your business to help a specific audience by solving a problem for them, by providing a solution of some kind, whether it's a service or a product. You got into business to help make a difference, to help solve a problem. So let's get back to basics. Here's the shift. Here's a new way to think about your visibility given a really rocky landscape.

And here's what I just wanna offer to you today. Something so simple. Visibility does not have to mean performing. Okay. It can mean serving, just being of service with clarity, with calm and with purpose. So, and here's something that might actually surprise you, which is that right now, September of 2025, nearly 80% of marketers use opt-in forms That also include a lead magnet, which is a free resource, something that's gonna help people solve a specific problem.

That stat 80% of marketers are using growing an audience by exchanging. Their email address for something of value. That really tells us something powerful, that even in this messiness of social media right now and this very polarized environment, people are still searching for the solution that they need.

People are still searching for help. They're still Googling, how do IX, Y, Z? They're still searching for a quick fix to their problem and they're still opting in to get that solution. And to get the value that they're seeking, right? So what they don't want is more noise and more conflict and more, you know, discomfort.

But what they do want is relevant support for their problem. So that's where your energy can be focused, right? So it's not into performing and just showing up and checking the boxes of like, I did my three posts on social media this week, you know, but literally showing up with the goal of solving a problem, helping people.

Make progress towards their goal. So here's the nugget. Here's the practical shift if you are frozen right now, right? Here's one question that can help unlock your next step. And that question is, what is one? Right now, problem that my audience is dealing with, that I can help solve quickly, simply, and generously.

Because the thing about, uh, sharing a solution, a quick win like a lead magnet or something like that, is that it gets them an answer to something they're dealing with right in that red hot moment. So what is one right now problem that your audience is facing? And here's a little trick if you're not sure.

Uh. Number one, you can just simply ask, say, what is your number one problem that you're facing, right to your, your mailing list? And ask them what they're dealing with. Or go on to one of your social media channels and say, Hey, I'm creating something new to support my audience. What is your, you know, give them three choices and ask them to vote on the thing that they're most struggling with.

But if you're, you know, if you don't wanna do either of those things or if you don't have an audience to ask, ask yourself If I was. X, Y, ZA person who is your ideal client? Um, what would I most want help with right now? And that is the. Quickest way to get to a clear solution that you can provide for them.

So just put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself what's a right now problem that they're dealing with, that they're out there and if they saw the solution, they would probably grab it. It's gonna, number one, it's gonna help you connect with them. It's gonna help establish you as a supportive, helpful person.

It gets them immediately connected to you and potentially invites them offline. So you're off of social media and it allows you to show them a little bit more about who you are and what you offer. So there's a lot of value to doing it, and that's it. Keep this so, so simple, right? It's way more simple than we think.

And I've been blown away by more than once to see a two sentence checklist. With what Literally one page outperform a beautifully designed robust ebook or guide that took like months, weeks, or months to create your simple solution to a simple, right. Now problem is, is a way to be of service, a way for you to remain visible.

And like I just said, what works in these scenarios is super, super simple. So maybe that's a checklist. Maybe that's a three minute voice note that solves a specific mindset shift. Maybe it's a one page PDF that's like, you know, a cheat sheet or a guide. Um, this could be a short video training on how to do something that they're stuck on for people who do video, but keep it so simple.

Make it useful. Make it something that you know will help them. Don't overthink it. Don't make it complicated and add, add more and more and more to it. And, um, I'm gonna talk about this in great, great detail in an upcoming class that I'll talk about in just a second. But this is honestly how I have managed to stay visible for many, many years now.

Through so many shifts and twists and turns and personal, you know, crisises and shutting down the entire business and pivoting the direction of my, you know, my coaching and, you know, personal health stuff with my family, all that stuff, I have been able to remain consistent because when I feel overwhelmed.

And, and uncomfortable going online for whatever reason. Maybe it's personal reasons, maybe it's, you know, political reasons. Maybe it's just what's going on in the world at whatever the reason be. It's frequent, right? We frequently don't feel like posting on the internet, but when I feel that way, I just, I recircle back to why did I get into this?

Who, what is my ideal client struggling with right now? Like, there's somebody out there on the other side of this internet connection who is frustrated, and I have a tool in this. You know, in my toolkit here that can help them right now. What is that thing? Can I just post a link and just say, Hey, anybody that needs this right now, I have this for you.

So, and it, it, you know, it doesn't solve the giant world problems, but it does maybe help one person and it's a way for me to show up in a way that I feel useful and of service by offering real help, by staying rooted in service, right people, you know, by creating things that people actually need. So if this is resonating with you and you're like, yes, yes, yes, I wanna do this, I wanna lean into service, I wanna have better, you know, systems in place, and you'd like more guidance on this, uh, on how to create, specifically to create a smart, aligned and high converting digital asset.

I am teaching a free class, uh, it's on Wednesday, September 24th. At 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, it's called How to Create a Bingeable Digital Product. And this could be anything. It could be a lead magnet, something that you give away for free in exchange for list growth. It could be a low ticket product that you sell.

It could be something that's just like a set up to bump people up to a paid program that you run. And there's lots of ways to do it strategically, but the goal with the class is to help you put your finger on what's actually high converting. I'm gonna drop some stats on. What's working in 2025 and share a little bit about how to read your audience instead of guessing.

We're gonna talk about how to validate your idea before you actually build it. And we're gonna talk about how to create a product that solves a right now problem without having to, you know, shout on social media without having to perform, but really just getting to the heart of the matter of what is gonna help your, your people.

So, uh, if you want to come to that class. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes. If you're listening to this after the fact and you want the replay, shoot me a message and I will share the link. And yeah, I just wanna keep this short today because I just feel that tension in the online space. So I just wanna, you know, in closing, you don't need to be doubling down on.

Sort of the performance aspect of being visible, right? You don't need to be trendier and show up in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. And honestly, you don't need to show up on social media if you're not sure what to say at all. Like I would, I would. Caution you about going live and posting things that you feel are not in alignment with who you are and what you do.

Right? Don't post just to, just to post, lean into the thing that you are aiming to be of service with, right? You don't, and you also, you don't need to voice your opinion about highly controversial social issues. I also wanna offer you that you really don't, that's not your job. Um, you're allowed to keep your opinions to yourself.

But if social media is part of your marketing plan and it's top of funnel for you and you're feeling this discomfort, then yes, you do still need to connect, but do it from a place of service and continue to offer things that are helpful to your. Targeted community of people that you are aiming to help.

That's really, that's the way forward. Being grounded in your work, being empathetic to the fact that if, if you're feeling that way, probably your audience is too, right? Your audience is probably all feeling the same discomfort of this moment. These are very trying times and we need to be sensitive. But we can still be of service to the ones who need us and not have to completely just sign off and not be online at all.

So with that, my dear, I am cheering you on every step of the way and. I, I love to see, you know, especially when my clients post things, it makes me so happy because I really do wanna urge you to not shy away from being a leader in the community. Um, and the way to do that is to just be of service. So I'm gonna lead it there for today, and I wish you amazing.

Start to fall. Happy, uh, happy fall equinox for those listening in real time. And please grab the link for this free class. It's Wednesday at 7:00 PM It's September 24th, uh, Eastern Standard time that is, and I'll see you there. And I'm excited to share some of these. I just did some nerdy digging into some current stats on what's hot for these digital products.

So I will see you there. And until then, may you be vibrant.