Sustainable visibility isn't passive. It's intentional

The fourth time the nurse walked into the room and started running tests on my daughter, it was 1 am. That’s when I realised the futility of trying to sustain a regular work schedule that week. My daughter needed me, and I needed to be really careful about honouring my body as I found myself in an intense caretaker role. (Years of chronic illness means my body needs rest, rhythm, and lots of downtime to function relatively normally.)

My mind started flicking through the commitments I had, considering what was essential and what could be delayed. After running The School of Visibility® for a decade, I now see everything through the lens of visibility, so I also started with this critical question: Where is my voice needed right now? 

It was clear that my voice was needed as a mother, when speaking with doctors and myriad healthcare professionals. It was needed in the educational system to build flexibility into my daughter’s schooling day as we work through her physical challenges, and it was needed at home, to stabilise and support the family unit.

I was also in the midst of a huge consultancy project that involved deep listening and communication skills; drawing forth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in a way that would help them to be heard by governments across the country. In that space, I was asking myself: Where do I need to listen more? Who has not yet been heard? Have I heard all the perspectives? 

 

Juggling these two substantial tasks meant there was little room left for anything else. So I decided to take a month off writing, off socials, off creating new content. I was still seeing clients, running a course to support local not-for-profit leaders to be more strategically visible, hosting workshops, and answering student questions. I was still engaged, but I wasn’t growing the business through front-facing visibility. I could have run ads at that time - one of my favourite ways to be visible without being personally visible. I could have shared old content. But I had no room to organise those things. So I took a break.

Aside from an annual break, I take over the Christmas/New Year period, the last time I took an extended break from creating new content was when I was on maternity leave with my son. He’s now 8 years old.

Consistency is something I worked very hard to achieve over that time. I had to work A LOT on my nervous system to help it develop the stability that consistency requires. (My system was shot from PTSD, which led to chronic fatigue and long COVID - but anyone navigating ADHD, nervous system dysregulation, or autoimmune diseases that affect energy and regulation will understand the uphill battle.)

The tendency of my nervous system was to jump all over the place, distracted by all the shiny objects, uncomfortable with regularity. So I took it step by step, working on one habit at a time, rewiring my neural pathways and clearing out the wounds that kept me from sitting with ease in my body. Over time, I found myself stepping ever closer to stillness, peace, and contentment.

 

I stayed vigilant about consistency for years because the alternate path had not served me. It had created unnecessary chaos in my life. It had seen me opening too many loops (new ideas, projects, relationships, tasks) without closing any old loops. I think of it as the post-it note phase of my life. Where I didn’t take the time to put anything into a system and so everything - every idea, every task, every reminder - was recorded on post-it notes piling up on my desk.

I had these habits before I worked for myself, but there’s something about being paid by someone else and working in a team with a shared goal that helped keep the loop-opening tendencies at bay. Once I stepped into self-employment, the absence of that external structure exposed the weaknesses in my internal structure. There was no one to stop me from opening loops, so I had to build that scaffolding for myself.

I’m so grateful to every student who joined me during those years in our then signature program Women Speaking Up. Together we explored the habits and fears, the rhythms and systems (or lack thereof!), that were either supporting or sabotaging our visibility.

After closing that program, I knew we would still need something. Not another year-long commitment, but a lighter-touch, a more flexible offering. A space to share the scaffolding I’d built, along with the tools to help others sustain their own visibility system over time. That’s how The Visibility Studio came into being. It offers a step-by-step process for cultivating your visibility practice: a foundation upon which you can speak up, step forward, and take up space. It also helps you to listen deeply, discern wisely, and pass the mic when appropriate. It’s about building the kind of foundation that supports visibility in its many forms, across your business, your organisation, your career, and/or your life.

 

The delivery method reflects that shift in my nervous system. The course includes 14 days of audio lessons (with a few bonuses, of course), and two beautifully structured workbooks designed to deepen and extend your learning. Each workbook is around 40–50 pages, filled with reflection prompts and visibility practices. They’re designed to be revisited seasonally, helping you uncover new revelations about what’s impacting your visibility, what’s supporting it, and where more scaffolding is needed. The intention is to help you stay agile and consistent, present without performance, with the capacity to discern the difference between visibility alignment and visibility obligation.

In August, I’ll also be hosting a series of live sessions to accompany the course. The Visibility Studio LIVE will run from Monday 4 August to Sunday 31 August, with enrolments closing on Sunday 17 August. You can join at any point before then.

From 4 August, you’ll have access to the 14-day audio course, along with a supportive community space and weekly live calls. These sessions blend Q&A with practical guidance - we’ll work through some of the key themes and exercises together, integrate the learnings, and create space for reflection.

All sessions will be recorded, so whether you join early and take your time or arrive later with focused intention, you’ll be supported to move at your own pace.

If you’ve been wanting to create a visibility practice that’s rooted in rhythm rather than pressure, in discernment rather than obligation, this is your invitation. I’d love to welcome you inside.

Samantha x