321 | You Don't Have a Career Problem, You Have a Visibility Problem

Have you been feeling that restless, unsettled feeling at work and assuming the answer is a new job, a new industry, or starting over somewhere fresh?

Before you make that leap, I want you to pause - because for many of the brilliant women I've worked with, the problem was never the role. It was visibility.

In this episode, I'm making the case that what you're missing might not be a career change - it might just be that the right people don't know you exist yet.

I share a moment from a few years ago when I visited my old law firm and a woman I'd never met recognised me straight away - not from work, but from LinkedIn.

That moment shifted everything for me.

My expertise had a life beyond my job title, and it happened because I chose to show up consistently and share my perspective outside of my organisation.

If your experience and insight are only known inside your company walls, your expertise is being under-leveraged. And that's what we're unpacking today.


What we cover:

• How to tell whether you have a role problem or a visibility problem
• Why your existing expertise is already an asset - it just needs to be seen beyond your organisation
• How visibility outside your company creates real choices: speaking, writing, consulting, advisory and fractional work


You don't need a huge following or a viral moment. You just need a consistent, strategic approach to sharing what you know. And you don't need to start from scratch - you just need to start being seen.

Invest in Yourself and Your Career:

• Community — Join our Network for mid-career women redesigning what's next in their careers
• Coaching — Join the Waitlist for The Portfolio Career Academy. Turn Your Expertise Into Multiple Streams of Income & Impact Through Building A Portfolio Career. Join The Waitlist 

Connect with me!

Website: careerchangemakers.com
Email: podcast@careerchangemakers.com

LinkedIn:  Janine Esbrand

Instagram: @careerchangemakerspodcast

Career Change Makers on Apple Podcasts

Transcript

Janine Esbrand (00:00)
What if the answer to that restless feeling that you're experiencing at work isn't a new role, a new industry, or even starting from scratch, but instead being seen for what you already bring? Today, I want to challenge the default solution that most ambitious mid-career women reach when things stop feeling right.

because I've seen too many brilliant women go through the hard work of a career change, land somewhere new and still feel the same unsettled feeling a couple of years later. And the problem for many of them was never the role, it was visibility or lack thereof.

This episode is going to reframe the way you are thinking about your career progression.

Before we dive into today's episode, I want to tell you about a program that I have built specifically for ambitious mid-career women who are ready to leverage their expertise and start being seen for what they bring to the table beyond the walls of their company. If that's you, if you are ready to build beyond your office, message me the word start on LinkedIn

and I'm gonna share with you information about the program and make sure that you're the first to hear when the doors open.

few years ago I visited one of my past colleagues at my old law firm and I went into her office, she was in there with her colleague and

I went into her office and she was in there with the person that she shared with. And as I went in, that person looked up and said, ⁓ I know you, you're the lady from LinkedIn. I love your content. I said, thank you, I appreciate that. But

I remember in that moment thinking how powerful it is that my expertise had a life beyond my job title. That people that I'd never been in a room with had been reading my words, nodding along and thinking, ⁓ she gets it. That moment didn't come from me getting a promotion. It didn't come from me finding a better role. It came from me being visible and doing it intentionally and consistently. And everything I'm going to share with you in today's episode starts from that realization.

being visible is as important as showing up and doing a good job.

oftentimes when you feel like things are no longer working in the way that they once did, the default instinct can be to start looking for a new role. Making a change can feel like the answer.

a new environment, a fresh start, that is gonna solve it because we've been taught that career progression is linear and if where you are is no longer working,

you move to somewhere else but if you're making that move and not identifying what is really the root cause of your dissatisfaction

that new role can become the same role just in a different container, in a different building. So it's important to consider before you start looking for that next opportunity or that next role to shift into, ask yourself, is this really a role problem or is it a visibility problem?

Is it that you're not getting the recognition that you desire or you're not getting the opportunities that you desire because you are not visible enough for the people within your organisation to see the value that you're bringing and for the people outside of your organisation to see the opportunities that could be extended to you?

Think about it. I want you to really reflect on when was the last time that someone outside of your organization knew what you were working on and what you were capable of. When was the last time?

And if you're struggling to answer, then you may well have a visibility problem rather than a role problem because you want to be thinking about yourself as an individual, as a professional and what you have to share, not only for your team, for your department, for your organization, for your client, but also for your wider industry.

What is it that you have to share? You've been working for a decade, for 15 years, for 20 years, and you've built up a whole body of work and a whole body of expertise. And you have opportunity for people to know about that and for you to attract opportunities because of that. But if you're not sharing about it, and if people don't know about it, then it's impossible for them to reach out to you and show you the opportunities that are available.

really and truly your experience is being under-leveraged. Everything you know, every problem that you've solved, every room that you've navigated, every insight you've developed, only has value when people can see it. And right now, the likelihood is most of it is invisible.

I recently spoke to a past client and she described it perfectly.

She spent two years intentionally building her personal brand and was able to go from knocking on doors to opportunities now coming to her. Her expertise didn't change. She didn't go and do another course, she didn't go back to uni, she didn't gain more certifications but what she did do is she got visible and it's made all the difference for her. So now she's speaking on panels, she's being invited to speak at events, opportunities are opening up for her, she's started

a blog, she's connected with people, she got more visible and has expanded the portfolio of her career. So for you, you can start by identifying one thing that you know deeply that people around you come to you for. That can be your starting point. That's what needs to be visible, not only internally within your organization, but externally.

And here's why I'm so passionate about this, because when you're visible outside of your company, you stop being dependent on one organization's view of your worth. You start to create options that could be speaking, that could be writing, that could be consulting, that could be advisory work, that could be fractional work, all that didn't exist before.

or all that you didn't realize existed before when you were only focused on the one track.

The women that I work with aren't really looking to burn down their careers. They're not looking to jump ship and go and start a business and go all in entrepreneurship. They are committed to working in their industry, but they want choices. they want to be able to say yes or no. And that

And those choices only occur when people outside of your building know that you exist and know what you do. And let me be clear, you do not need a huge platform. I'm not talking about you starting to build up an Instagram following or trying to get 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. I'm talking about you just being strategic with your visibility.

It might be LinkedIn, it might be networking events, it could be somewhere else, but really looking at what is a regular action that I could take that is going to enhance and grow my visibility that really is enough for you to get started.

Getting the level of fulfilment that you desire, being able to show up in the way that is making, in order to get the level of fulfilment that you desire, you may need to think outside of the box. To get the level of fulfilment that you desire, out of the box thinking is required. It isn't just about looking for that next VP position or director position and trying to narrow down the right role, organization, industry that you need to be in to get there. It can be about really

honing and leveraging what you have already built. You've been working, you've been putting in the time, you've been putting in the work over the years and instead of you feeling like you need to go somewhere else and start again and build up that career capital again, build up that brand equity again, you just need to leverage what it is that you have and start sharing more widely. Not just within your organization but also outside of your organization. Take ownership

of how your career is progressing and how you are perceived by being more visible around the things you want to be known for. Okay? So it might not be that you need a new job, it might be that you just need to be more visible.

That is what I wanted to share with you today. And if, as I've been sharing, you've been nodding along and you're thinking, yes, this is exactly what I've been missing. I do need to get more visible, but I don't know how. Then I invite you to come over to LinkedIn and shoot me a message. We are building something awesome. We're kicking off on the 29th of June. There's going to be 10 spots for 10 amazing women who are looking to build alongside their careers and show up in a way that allows them to leverage their expertise.

so they can start being seen and attracting opportunities.

Okay, that's all I want to share with you today. Until next time, keep working on moving into the driving seat of your career so that you can increase your income and your impact.