Show Up As You!

“There! I feel more like me!” 

This was the second time Ellie came into my room this morning as she was getting ready for picture day.

The first time she came in she was wearing a dress and I asked her how she felt. She said, “not really very good. Picture day is the hardest thing to get ready for.” 

PS: when did this stuff start at age 7?!

My response…“It’s only hard if you make it hard. Why don’t you wear something that you feel like “you” in?” 

She promptly turns around and goes back to her room. 

She came back in a dress, a jean jacket, socks, sandals (yes, I said socks and sandals), and a huge grin, and said, “there, now I feel like me!”

As a girl who worried way too much about what other people thought and tried way too hard to fit in…basically from middle school through college…my goal is to help her keep her uniqueness, to not be embarrassed because of it, to not try to hide it, to find out who she is and be proud of that girl. 

And as I was thinking about the situation this morning with her it became very apparent that this shows up in us as business owners as well. 

You’d think by now a message about showing up as ourselves… in our full uniqueness…wouldn’t resonate because it’s been talked about so much. There are hundreds of blogs that share this topic. 

But really, it’s not as easy as you might think. 

To show up as you. 

The special, the sarcastic, the punny, the dry, the oversharing, the whole-hearted, the “insert your uniqueness” here. Not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way. 

We’re constantly putting ourselves up against everybody else (especially here on social media)  and we forget that all of the qualities we hold are exactly the qualities our customers are looking for. 

And if we’re not who we truly are, then those people can’t find us. 

Bringing out those qualities at networking events, in the copy of your website, on your social media, in your newsletters, and in your headshots will help you find your people. They get to meet the you who you feel best in…socks, sandals, and all!

Personally, I feel this inner work is never-ending and we have to give ourselves grace along the way because it can be messy. It takes peeling back layers. Checking in with ourselves. Asking what brings us joy. Asking how we want to show up. Hiring people to help us dig in even deeper. And slowly stepping into living as that person each and every day. 

So, I’ll finish my ted talk now and hope you feel as confident in yourself as Ellie does in her socks and sandals 💕