5 visibility mistakes you might be making

Find Your Superpower Newsletter 126

Read time: 6 minutes

Topics covered: Strategic visibility, thought leadership, professional credibility, Brand Builder Mastermind enrolling for Jan 2026

We’re all aura farming in some way.

You want the visibility. You’re actively looking for it. Some of you are paying PR firms thousands of dollars to get you there. And honestly? There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be seen for your expertise.

The problem is this: not all exposure is created equal.

I see executives and business owners investing time, money and reputation into opportunities that may not move the needle for their brand... or worse, that may even actively damage their credibility.

Let me show you the five most common mistakes, and more importantly, what strategic visibility actually looks like.

Mistake #1: Accepting any speaking opportunity that comes your way

When you step on stage, the venue itself sends a signal about your positioning. Decision-makers notice where you’re speaking and who invited you.

What strategic visibility looks like: You’re invited as a keynote speaker at a closed-door, invite-only summit with 200 attendees, including C-suite leaders from Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. When you arrive at the Shangri-La Hotel, you’re escorted to a beautiful ballroom and offered coffee or wine. The organizers paid you $10-25K for your expertise. You immediately recognize many industry leaders and mentors in the room.

The visibility mistake: You’re one of 500+ speakers at a big-box expo event with 10,000 participants; anyone could attend simply by filling out a form online. When you arrive, you’re surrounded by chaos and makeshift stages where you can barely hear yourself speak, and if you want food, you’re lining up at a temporary cafeteria. You are squashed like cattle onto oversized panels with 7-8 speakers, with no consideration or sensibility as to how you are matched. The organizers paid you in "exposure dollars."  

One positions you as a sought-after authority. The other positions you as a commodity.

Mistake #2: Collecting pay-to-play awards

Awards carry weight only when they can’t be bought. Sophisticated clients and industry insiders know the difference immediately.

What strategic visibility looks like: You win EY Entrepreneur of the Year. There’s one winner. You didn’t pay a registration fee or application fee. You didn't purchase a table at their gala. You didn’t buy advertising space in their commemorative magazine. You were selected based on merit, and the recognition carries weight because everyone knows it can’t be bought.

The visibility mistake: You receive an award from an organization where, surprise, surprise, everyone who pays the registration fee wins something. There are strangely always 10-100 winners in each category. The "nomination" requires a fee. The "ceremony" requires purchasing tickets. The "winner’s package" includes marketing opportunities and advertorial inserts you need to pay for. It’s not an award. It’s a pay-to-play business model disguised as recognition.

When your LinkedIn headline lists awards that all follow the pay-to-play model, industry insiders roll their eyes. You simply can’t buy credibility. 

Mistake #3: Using vanity press publishing

Publishing a book should establish you as a thought leader with a signature message. But the path you take to publication matters enormously.

What strategic visibility looks like: You submit a book proposal to multiple publishers, and after a great deal of back-and-forth discussions, you land a book deal with a traditional publisher who pays you an advance, assigns you an experienced editor, handles marketing and distribution, and gets your book into actual bookstores and libraries. 

The visibility mistake: You simply whip out your credit card and pay $5,000-15,000 to a vanity press that promises to "make you a published author." Nobody edits it and so your book is riddled with typos, grammatical errors, and an incoherent structure and flow. It is impossible for most readers to understand it let alone enjoy it. The cover art is non-existent. They Fedex you 100 copies that sit in your living room. But hey, you can put "Author" in your LinkedIn headline, right?

The problem? Decision makers can tell the difference.

Mistake #4: Running free workshops with no strategic path to revenue

Being paid to train others signals that organizations value your expertise enough to invest in it. Free workshops signal something very different.

What strategic visibility looks like: You’re invited to lead a private workshop for senior leadership at a major corporation. They approached you because of your expertise. They’re paying you five figures for a half-day session. When you post about it on LinkedIn, you immediately get DMs from CHROs and talent leaders asking you to deliver the exact same workshop for them. FOMO is real in the corporate world.

The visibility mistake: You’re hosting a free webinar (and desperately promoting it on LinkedIn with daily posts) hoping to get 50 people to show up so it doesn’t look empty. Half the registrants don’t attend. The ones who do attend are unqualified (not your target audience) and are freebie-seekers with no buying intent. You spend two hours delivering value and get zero clients from it, let alone high-ticket clients.

Free isn’t always bad. But if your visibility strategy revolves around free content with no strategic path to a high-ticket offer, you’re stuck in the exposure trap.

Mistake #5: Paying for "media features"

Earned media carries credibility because a legitimate journalist chose you. Paid placements broadcast that you’re willing to buy the appearance of authority.

What strategic visibility looks like: A journalist from a major business publication reaches out to interview you because they’ve been following your LinkedIn content and think your perspective would add value to a story they’re working on. You didn’t pitch them. You didn’t pay for placement. They came to you because your content was magnetic to them.

The visibility mistake: You get a scammy-looking email saying you have been selected for the cover story of "CEO Magazine," a trade magazine you have never heard of nor seen on newsstands. You pay US$3,000 for a "featured interview." The "journalist" emails you softball questions and you never get any follow-up. The article goes live on a 90s-era website with loading errors and pop-up ads. 

One builds authority. The other broadcasts that you’re willing to pay for the appearance of authority.

Stop chasing exposure. Start building authority.

Prestigious speaking gigs, legitimate awards, and earned media come from being so valuable in your space that organizers and journalists seek you out. Quality exposure positions you as the prize, not the supplicant.

But developing this discernment isn’t something you can do alone.

You need someone who’s been in the arena; someone who understands which opportunities build credibility and which ones drain your time and budget. Someone who can help you see the difference between strategic visibility and vanity metrics before you waste years pursuing the wrong kind of exposure.

As a media entrepreneur and publisher, I am not only a member of this industry, I have also been on the receiving end of it for many years: I have been featured in mainstream media outlets (BBC, CNBC, CNA, Yahoo and so on) as well as given paid keynotes and corporate workshops. I publish books and magazines for my clients, and I am also a commissioning editor for the largest STEM publisher in Asia.

This service of "discernment" is one I provide to my clients on demand, 365 days a year.

Let me help you discern what truly matters

Ladies & gentlemen, we are now enrolling for the first 2026 cohort of the Brand Builder Mastermind.

Inside my 12-month Brand Builder Mastermind, I’ll help you:

• Build a defensible brand that commands premium positioning
• Create signature content that attracts ideal clients to you
• Build your trust funnel: know → like → trust → buy
• Identify high-quality opportunities from mediocre ones

We limit membership to maintain community quality and culture.

Over 200 industry professionals are already inside.

Enroll for our January 2026 cohort during the super early-bird phase to get a US$200 discount until Tuesday, 18 November 11:59 PM (GMT+8).

Read testimonials and enroll here →

Your rocketship captain,
Juliana 🚀

P.S. You don’t have to figure this out alone. The professionals who command five-digit speaking fees didn’t get there by trial and error. They had mentors who helped them develop strategic discernment. Let me be that mentor for you.