Are you afraid of being seen?

How to show up online without dying on the inside

Age 21, my first job in PR: my manager and I walk into a client meeting, and she introduces me as “the most confident woman in any room”. I’m still reeling from that comment, because it couldn’t be further from what I thought of myself.

Years later, I still haven’t grown into my erstwhile title of the most confident person in any room (not even my own living room most days lol). My hand shakes when I hit publish. But I think the difference is that I hit publish anyway.

Like you, I’ve always had ideas, thoughts, and feelings that were ripping out of me, but I always kept them stuffed and zipped inside because letting them out meant putting myself out there. Risking embarrassment, risking being wrong, and worst of all, getting caught trying in public.

But you know, one life and all that. Luckily, at some point, boredom outweighed fear, and doing nothing became more unbearable than risking embarrassment. And hence was born (with sufficiently long periods of hesitation) my business newsletter, this very Substack, a spanking new website, and more.

I remember clearly my first newsletter. I spent two hours nervously hovering over the send button, imagining ridicule and replies with the word UNSUBSCRIBE. Yet, none of my imagined humiliations came true, and that email became my first concrete step forward.

The problem is always in the resistance to beginning. Those brake pedals that we stamp down as soon as we have the audacity to think that what we have to say deserves to be seen. And the best gift I’ve given myself is the tools to keep creating, hit that publish button, even when everything inside of me is stopping me from doing just that.

But where do you start? How do you stay consistent? How do you generate content ideas? How do you start showing up online when you’re terrified of both being seen and being invisible?

Alex Hormozi thinks that you have to spend 4 hours a day creating and publishing content, especially when you’re starting. I’m not one for hustle, but he has a point. You probably shouldn’t start day 1, creating 14 different content pieces, though. They won’t be good, and you’re going to burn yourself out by day 5.

So, how to keep showing up without burning out or losing authenticity?

The framework for sustainable visibility

As I see it, 2 factors impact your success in showing up online

1. Your core message should resonate with your core audience

2. You keep showing up until it does

And here’s how to discover you’re own path to doing exactly that

Unearth Your Core Message

You cannot have visibility without being understood.

Algorithms ruin our ability to be able to show up with nuance; they strip your work of all context. So even when your ideal audience is standing in front of you, they can’t quite decide if what you create is for them.

Clear positioning makes it easier for them to decide in seconds that your content is what they want to consume. They want to stick around for what you create next.

This doesn’t mean that you’re required to pigeon-hole yourself; you can give yourself as much leeway as you need. But your audience needs more; this message is the lever that turns scattered output into a recognizable body of work they can rally around.

The best positioning clearly shows how what you care about intersects with what your audience cares about.

Build Your Visibility Stack

You don’t have to be on every single platform to put yourself out there. Creativity expresses itself in certain strengths, and when choosing a platform to put your work out there, it’s important to play into them.

If you’re a writer, Instagram might not help right off the bat; similarly, if you’re a photographer, maybe you should start publishing your work on Pinterest before you put it on Substack.

Which isn’t to say that you can’t use Instagram to promote writing, and Substack to share photography – it’s about building a visibility ecosystem slowly with each platform feeding into the other as you grow.

Briefly, here’s how I see the best way to build your visibility stack

1. Primary Platform: This is where you show up consistently, the platform that most suits your medium of expression

2. Discovery Platform: As you begin building up a body of work and start engaging with a community on your primary platform, choose one more that will help a new audience find you and consume the work you have on your primary platform

3. Play Platform: This is where you play, a new space, a low-pressure zone where you try out new formats and ideas. It’s important to only start on a play platform once you’ve built a good rhythm publishing on your Primary and Discovery platforms.

Here’s an (imperfect) example of my own stack: primary: email list and Substack, discovery: Substack notes, play: still getting there

But here’s a better version, from one of my clients.

Primary: blog posts on her website (new blog published each week)

Discovery: Pinterest (multiple pins a day linking back to older blog content)

Play: Instagram (trying out new styles of reels, and attempting brand collaborations)

Form Your Content Anchors

Content anchors are like bespoke cheatsheets for how you show up online. Creative patterns that people come to expect from you when they follow you. These anchors are great because they help people who find you know exactly what type of content you create, and it helps you stay on track and avoid shiny object syndrome.

Or worse, procrastination because you can’t decide what to post.

Recognise how your creativity is best expressed, as well as what format is most consumed by people who would like the kind of things you create.

There are 4 types of content anchors you can use as a starting point to generate ideas from:

1. Writing-based anchors: These could be weekly newsletters, themed reflections on X, a weekly cadence to promote your long-form writing on threads, or Substack notes.

2. Visual or video anchors: Process videos, or WIP story updates on Instagram, talking head videos sharing creative advice or thoughts, behind-the-scenes photos from your life

3. Recurring series: You can switch these up depending on the platform, or even create a recurring series for each platform you post on. These could be things like weekly curations, or a series like Whimsy Dispatch, Office Hours, or this new Instagram series millionaire year.

4. Creative intimacy anchors: These are so that your audience knows you and comes to trust you. Explore ideas like sharing resistance that you’re working through, mundane updates from your life, or even honest updates on how showing up online feels.

Ideally, you’d want to mix and choose between 2-3 of these to build a well-rounded online presence that fosters trust from those who come across you, with a distinct visual and lingual identity that feels intimate and uniquely you.

Don’t hesitate if you have something to say

Wanting is reason enough. Putting yourself out there is challenging and deeply confronting, especially if you aren’t used to it. But if you feel called to, don’t hesitate, say the thing you’ve come to say.

Even if you're unsure exactly what your message is, start by writing down just one thing you deeply care about. Then share it. Right now. Your message emerges not through waiting, but by actively showing up.

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I’m Shika, storyteller, reader, and full-time online business girlie.

I live with my WFH system, yoga mat, and 3000 books. I’ve spent the better half of my 20s helping creatives and founders get the kind of visibility that shakes their business from the roots (for the better!).

This is my Substack, letters from my skin, where I say and talk about whatever takes root in my mind at the time. But I’m partial to deep, honest perusals of my own life and making whimsical lists of things I like, and the art of building visibility.

You can find my business newsletter (see how I storytell to sell) here.