Every issue of The Visible Founder newsletter, right here. New issues are added as soon as they go out.
Subscribe on Kit →Last week, after landing back in Chicago from a month in California, I went to the dentist.
While I was waiting, I started talking to the woman next to me.
Somehow she ended up telling me she bought an espresso machine six months ago. Hasn't made a single coffee with it yet.
"What's stopping you?" I asked.
She laughed and said she wanted to get it right.
So she'd been taking classes about coffee, syrups, milk steaming, all of it.
She knew more about espresso than most baristas at this point.
Still hadn't pressed the button once.
And I sat there thinking: is it more knowledge she needs?
Clearly no.
Then it got me thinking...
When I work with private clients, there's no "theory day".
We don't do a pre-work module, not a "get ready to get ready."
To keep gathering is like feeling you're making progress without actually making it.
So instead, we go all in!
When Sarah, (one of my private clients) came to me, she knew exactly what she wanted to say about her business.
She just couldn't say it out loud without freezing.
So we didn't start with frameworks, we started by taking action from week one and fixing it from there.
That's the whole method.
Find what's actually stopping someone, then move.
I don't think that woman needs more coffee classes.
I think she needs to press the button and drink whatever comes out.
Same goes for you, probably.
Whatever your version of "one more class" is.
or one more course, one more template...
One more read of somebody else's advice.
At some point you have to just press the (post) button.
Otherwise you'll never feel ready to start.
Today I'm cheering for more bad coffees made before we were ready to press the button. And everything we learn from them.
View original on Kit →After working with many coaches, fractional CXO's, and service based founders, I realized that imposter syndrome doesn't always show up the say way for everyone.
But some of the ones I heard the most sound more like:
"I don't have enough case studies yet."
"I haven't achieved significant enough results yet."
"Once I have more clients, then I can talk about this."
And I know that because at one point I went through that too.
and that was also exactly what was happening to one of my clients.
She felt she hadn't helped enough people reach the final outcome she had in mind.
And because of that, she didn't feel comfortable talking about his results.
The funny thing is, she had seen changes, but she dismissed them.
Because she had built a very specific definition of what it meant to transform someone.
And that definition went something like this:
person completely stuck → works with me → completely different life.
Everything that happened between those two points didn't seem to count.
And as we spoke, I remembered something.
A few years ago, I also thought that significant changes had to feel significant while they were happening.
Now, I believe the exact opposite is often true.
Significant changes usually start in a rather boring way. Like changing your life 1% every day and how amazing the compound effect on that can be.
And one day, much later, you look back and realize that small thing was the beginning.
That's what was happening with his clients, because the gears were already turning.
She was simply waiting to hear the roar of the entire machine.
And I find this to be a very important distinction when selling a service.
Because you don't need to prove that you completely transform people's lives.
You need to prove that understand how to help someone move from where they are to where they want to be.
And you can show that movement at different stages along the way.
A client who gains clarity, or makes a decision. Another who changes a behavior or starts acting differently.
That isn't any less of a result just because it isn't the final outcome yet.
It is evidence of progress. And when you start viewing your clients that way, the way you see yourself changes, too.
You stop looking for proof that you're good enough and start observing what is actually happening right in front of you.
To me, that is a much healthier way to build authority.
Not by exaggerating results or by fabricating transformations, but simply by learning to observe closely.
That is something I work on extensively with my 1:1 clients.
Because often, they don't need to achieve more things before they can talk about what they do.
They need to learn to better communicate what is already happening.
And if you want to start viewing your experience from that perspective, you can check this MASTERCLASS
Maybe your next success story doesn't need to be bigger.
Maybe you just need to learn to see the one you already have.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
There's a phrase I hear quite often when working on content with my clients:
"But I've already said this."
It came up recently during a call with a client.
He perfectly understood something that, to me, is a huge part of the game when selling services: you can't keep coming up with a new message every week. You have to repeat yourself. In different ways, sure, but repeat yourself.
The problem was, for him, that felt really difficult.
Because all his ideas were stuck inside his head.
And when an idea has been bouncing around in there for weeks, months, or even years, every time you write about it again, it feels like you're saying the same old thing.
"I've already explained this."
"I've already posted about this."
"I don't want to be a broken record."
And I get it, it happens to me, too (like all the time.)
Sometimes I'm working on something and I think: "Am I really going to talk about this again?"
And then I remember something pretty obvious: I've seen every single time I've talked about it. My audience hasn't.
But even knowing that, one question remained:
How do we repeat ourselves without it feeling repetitive?
And that's where stories become so useful.
Because you don't have to change the idea.
You can change the experience that leads you to it.
You could say:
"Your experience is part of what sets you apart."
And leave it at that.
But you could also tell me about the day, during a client call, when someone said something that made you realize that a thing you considered completely normal was actually one of the reasons they'd chosen you.
Same idea, but now there's a scene, a person, a moment, a realization...
And suddenly, it doesn't feel like you're repeating a phrase you've already posted.
You're telling a story about something that happened.
This reminded me of a conversation I had a while back with someone who was worried about "having enough content."
And I thought:
Maybe we don't need more ideas. Perhaps we need to learn to extract more depth from the ideas that already matter.
Because if you have ten truly important ideas about your business, you can revisit them for years.
You can approach them through a client story, something that happened to you, a mistake, a conversation, or even something you saw while walking down the street.
Like I do in this newsletters.
That's when your life starts fueling your content.
You don't need to be constantly searching for something new.
You need to pay attention to the connections that are already taking place.
This is something we focus on heavily in my 1:1 sessions.
Because I don't want my clients leaving a session with a list of 30 topics they'll forget in two weeks.
I want them to know which ideas truly need to be repeated and how they can revisit them through their own experiences.
And if you want to start doing that work on your own, I've prepared a masterclass specifically to help you find those ideas and start turning them into content.
Access it now here
And if you'd like to work together on your message, differentiation, and story in a personalized way, you can also reply to let me know, and I'll explain how the 1:1 process works.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
There's a question that's been playing on my mind since one of my recent calls with a client:
"But… what do I talk about, then?"
It made me smile because, in reality, we had spent quite a bit of time discussing the exact opposite.
We had talked about her experience, her business, everything she'd done to get to where she was, the lessons she'd learned, and the problems she'd solved for her clients…
We had done a lot of work looking inward.
And yet, when it came to content, that blank page appeared again.
"Right, but now… what do I post?"
And I think this is something that happens to so many of us.
We think the problem is that we don't have enough ideas.
So, we open socials.
We look at what someone else is posting.
We save a post.
We think we should make a carousel about this or a Reel about that.
And we still don't know what to say.
But after that call, I found myself thinking about something while doing something completely different.
Maybe the problem isn't that we don't know what to talk about.
It's that we're asking the wrong question.
Because if I ask you:
"What do you want to talk about on Instagram/LinkedIn?"
it's pretty easy to draw a blank.
But if I ask you:
"What is your client trying to change right now?"
the conversation shifts. Then you can start asking yourself questions like:
What is frustrating them?
What do they want to achieve?
What have they already tried?
What do they ask you over and over again?
That's where topics start to emerge.
And then, your part comes in.
Because I don't want you to simply talk about your clients' problems as if you were an outside commentator.
I want you to be able to say:
"I understand this because I've seen it."
"I realized this when…"
"For years, I thought the problem was X, until I started seeing Y."
(add whatever way you would share it and it feels like yours)
That's where your experience starts to add value to your content. And, interestingly, I think this is one of the things I love most about working with 1:1 clients.
Because often, we don't need to sit down together and churn out 30 content ideas.
We need to actually talk, ask questions, pull at a thread, look at previous calls with clients...
And suddenly, something you've been doing for years but never considered relevant to your content shows up.
That's what I want to help you find.
Not just what to post.
But what you have to say about the problems that matter to your clients.
And if you want to start doing that work on your own, I have a masterclass that helps you do exactly that: find the connections between your experience, your story, and what your clients need to hear -> The Story That Sells You
And if you're reading this and thinking, "This is exactly what I'm going through, and I want to do this with you," you can reply to me, too. Part of what I do is work with people 1:1.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
During this last month I have been locking in, in health and business and I changed more than my habits and routines. I changed my mindset.
Because I realized that most of the things I was looking for to serve my clients better were in front of me.
So, after opening my eyes more and take advantage of the things that were already in front of me.
I asked a client a question that seemed quite simple: "Tell me how you got to where you are now."
She began sharing things that, to her, seemed completely disconnected from her current business. Past experiences, decisions she had made, things she had learned, and even moments where she had to shift her mindset. Even parts of her professional journey she likely never would have considered "worth sharing on content."
But as I listened, I saw something different.
There was a story there.
Not just a pretty story for an "About Me" section (which I am not a big fan of).
A story that explained why she viewed certain problems the way she did.
And perspectives that others in her industry didn't necessarily share.
And that is far more valuable.
Because many people believe that standing out means finding something no one else is doing.
A completely new method, with a fancy name, or a slogan, maybe even cool branding. But often, what makes you different is already there.
It's hidden in the combination of:
1) what you've lived through,
2) what you've learned,
3) the problems you've had to solve,
4) the decisions you've made,
5) AND the unique way all of that changed the way you work.
The problem is, you're too close to your own story.
That's why you don't see it.
To you, something that happened ten years ago might seem irrelevant.
To your client, it might be the very reason they trust your approach to helping them.
This is one of the things I love most about working with my 1:1 clients.
I don't try to invent a story for them.
I try to help them discover which parts of their journey explain who they are today, and how we can turn that into a narrative that resonates with the clients they want to attract.
Because when you stop talking only about what you sell and start showing why you view the problem the way you do, something interesting happens:
you stop seeming interchangeable.
And that is exactly what you want when you don't want to compete by lowering your prices.
If you want to start exploring your own story before working with me 1:1, I've prepared The Story That Sells You to help you find those pieces.
And if you feel your story is much bigger than what you're currently able to communicate, we can work on it together in a personalized way.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
There's a phrase I hear quite often from service-based experts: "I need more people to discover me."
And I completely understand where that comes from.
You publish content. You try to be consistent. You check your metrics. You see others reaching more people, and you think that might be the problem.
So the conclusion is that you need more reach, more followers, and more eyes on your content.
Which I don't blame you, because that's the metric we have all been taught to follow.
And that is precisely what came up during my first discovery session with a client.
She wanted to figure out how to get more new people to find her business.
So, we began to walk through her entire business. From the moment someone discovered her to what happened after they hired her.
And as we moved forward, something emerged that I found far more interesting than the initial problem.
She could explain her method perfectly, what she did and how she did it. She knew how to guid her clients to the end goal. But when we looked at her content, there was very little room for something that came before all that: the problem her client was trying to solve.
And that's where the conversation shifted.
Because you can get ten thousand new people to see your content. But if none of them thinks: "This is exactly what I'm going through," then visibility won't help you much.
Reach amplifies your message. It doesn't fix the message.
And this is one of the things I work on most with my 1:1 clients.
We don't start by simply asking: "What should you post this week?"
We start much earlier.
We look at the problem you actually solve, the experiences that allow you to see it differently, and how to turn all of that into a narrative that lets the right person see themselves in it.
Because when that is clear, your content stops relying so heavily on grabbing attention.
It starts building trust.
And if you want to work with me personally, I currently run this process 1:1 with clients who want to dive deep into their positioning, differentiation, and story.
But I also know that not everyone is at that stage. That's why I created The Story That Sells You so you can start doing this work on your own and begin finding the pieces of your story that can be turned into content.
And if you're looking to work on all of this with me personally, you can reply to let me know, and I'll tell you how 1:1 coaching works.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
We've always been told that if you want to reach people, you have to hit their pain. "Rub salt in the wound." (basic social media advice, tbh)
But the problem is we misunderstood what that pain actually is. Because when everything you post is about how stuck someone is (how invisible they feel, how much they're getting wrong) guess who shows up in your comments. Exactly that person. The one who complains about the algorithm instead of posting. The one who says, "I'd love to share more, but I just don't know what to say." The one who sees herself as someone content happens to, not someone who has something to say. How do you expect someone like that to actually sit down and write? You don't.
"If you're tired of feeling invisible online…" "If you're sick of watching people with less experience get more attention…" "If you're exhausted from overthinking every caption…" Those lines work well when you want to attract people stuck in the complaint.
All because we misunderstood what "hitting the pain" means. There are two kinds of pain. One is the pain we just described: talking to people who are stuck and know it, and stay there. But there's another one that I find way more interesting. The pain tied to potential.
This is the pain of knowing you have something worth saying (your experience, your perspective, the years of doing the thing) but every time you try to put it into words, it comes out flat. Or you even delete it before anyone sees it. That's not a victim's pain. That's frustration.
And frustration is a positive-energy emotion. It's the one that makes someone finally try telling it differently, instead of rewriting the same bio for the fourth time. That's the pain worth speaking to. Not "you're invisible and it's a mess." But: you're sitting on something real, and you haven't found the way to say it yet.
So, when you put yourself out there, stop seeing your audience as people who need to be convinced content matters. Start seeing them as people already trying (they are already writing, already showing up) who just haven't seen that the story was the thing all along.
I was at a farmers market here in San Diego last weekend, and I watched two stands sell almost the exact same thing. One vendor kept saying some version of "you NEED this, your gut health is a mess without it." People nodded politely and kept walking. The stand next to her just told you what she'd learned from three years of getting her own fermentation wrong before she got it right... and there was a line!
Nobody in that line was more informed than the people who walked past. They just believed her more, because she wasn't selling them a problem. She was showing them she'd already lived the "figuring it out" part they were still stuck in.
That's the whole thing. That's the person who reads one post and thinks: finally, someone said the thing I couldn't figure out how to say about myself.
Do whatever you want with this. But if you're ready to stop talking to people stuck in the complaint, and start writing to people who are already in motion. The Story That Sells You is where I show you how to find the stories you're already sitting on, and how to actually tell them.
View original on Kit →I am gonna let you into a little secret, because at this point I feel we know each other. (If not, hi!!! I am Nuria.)
A few months ago, a client of mine refused to be the face of her own marketing. She didn't want to be on camera nor share her story - simply hoping the work would speak for itself.
But then I got her to post one video anyway.
Consequently, it got 47 comments on an account with 312 followers, and new clients told her, directly, that video is why they came.
That's what happens when you stop hiding behind "professional."
I used to be the one hiding.
I was always told that, since I had an accent, I had to make my experience sound very "important," or nobody would listen to me.
Therefore I tried, because I didn't know any better.
But then it started burning me out.
It was making me hate writing content, and I felt like an impostor.
And that made me almost stopped showing up at all.
But then I realized I wasn't the only one.
We all get to a point where it doesn't matter what we put out there, someone has "done better" than us.
So what's the only way we can still get our audience's attention without those crazy numbers?
Telling them things others can't.
That's when I started building the framework I've used not only for me, but with the service-based founders I work with.
So instead of overexplaining their credentials in a caption, they post the one story only they have, and get comments like "this is why I booked."
Now, you might be reading this thinking, "that's easy for Nuria, she's moved countries and has a whole journey to talk about, my story isn't that interesting."
So I'm gonna stop you right there:
it was never about the drama.
It's about being specific about who you are instead of generic about what you do. Nobody else has your exact experience, your exact way of thinking, your exact perspective. That's the one thing nobody can copy.
Because at the end of the day, people don't only buy your services, they buy the person they'll be working with.
And that's YOU.
But let's be honest, selling yourself isn't natural to most people. (That's not a flaw, it's just untrained.)
So, it's been feeling weird to you, and that's exactly why.
But here's the good news: there's a way to learn it, and I've mastered it, first for myself, then for my clients.
So here's the real secret. It was never about having a story dramatic enough to tell. You're hiding your real self from your ideal clients because you're not sharing those views on your content, not because you don't have anything worth sharing.
Therefore the only way to change that is to take action.
One way is by yourself, with The Story That Sells You.
Or we do it together, so instead of staring at a blank caption box wondering if this is "too much," you post the thing only you could've said, and someone tells you it's why they showed up.
It's not what you say, but it's how you say it.
- Nuria
Yesterday I sat in a room full of business owners. (I was invited to speak to them about storytelling)
All of them had already done the basic marketing. The kind that gets you started, gets you your first clients, gets you to a place where the business is real.
But they all wanted more. They wanted to get into storytelling, because they didn't want to miss out on reaching the people who were actually meant to be their clients.
And one sentence kept coming up, over and over. "I don't want to overshare."
Every time someone said it, a few heads nodded.
Because that's the fear, isn't it?
That if you start telling stories, you won't know where to stop. That "being real" means opening every door in your life and hoping people don't walk through the wrong one.
But that's not what oversharing is.
Oversharing isn't sharing too much. It's sharing without deciding what it's for.
The problem was never how much they were willing to share. It was that they'd never been taught how to choose.
Nobody in that room was actually worried about privacy. They were worried about control. About putting something out there and not knowing what it would cost them.
So, as many other business owners they kept it safe posting tips and frameworks. The version of themselves that feels defensible.
But since I have also been there, I know how to help them get out.
So this is what I told them: You don't need to share everything. You need to know exactly which stories move your business forward, and be willing to tell those, fully.
That's not oversharing. It's aiming.
Some great examples are: The client who almost walked away and what changed her mind. The course that cost you a lot of money, but didn't really teach you anything. The moment you almost quit and the specific thing that made you stay.
Those aren't confessions. They're proof.
And the founders who hesitate to tell them aren't protecting themselves.
They're protecting people from seeing how real person behind the business built its experience.
Hence, the fear was never about oversharing. It was about not knowing which stories were actually theirs to tell.
That's a decision, not a personality trait. And it's one you can learn to make on purpose.
PS: If you've ever sat down to share something real and stopped yourself, not because it wasn't true, but because you weren't sure it was "allowed," that's exactly what I walk you through in The Story That Sells You. It'll help you find the stories that are actually yours to tell, and how to tell them without wondering if you've said too much.
View original on Kit →Today I had one of the most eye opening calls of my life.
This person didn't say anything new to me, but the way she said it got me thinking.
She's an expert in sales, and I've been following her on Instagram for a while because someone recommended her to me.
I liked her right away because she's very straightforward.
You can see her personality right through her content, and straightforward are my kind of people.
As we were chatting, she asked me why I do what I do.
I told her that founders, solopreneurs, service providers, don't know what they have. That's why they only sell their services. They need to be promoting themselves instead, because that's what actually moves people to buy.
And she looked at me, her eyes wide open, with a face of disappointment.
"People think they're selling a service, and yes, technically, they are, but that's rarely the full sale."
(Mind you, this is coming from a person who teaches sales for a living.)
Because when someone hires a solopreneur, they're not only buying the deliverable.
They're buying the person behind it.
They're buying your taste. Your standards. Your way of seeing. Your energy. Your clarity. Your leadership.
They're buying how safe it feels to trust you.
That's why two people can offer something very similar on paper, and one creates immediate trust while the other gets ignored.
It's not always the offer.
It's who's behind it, and how they'll change your life.
I always ask people: Can people tell who you are? Can they feel what you stand for? Can they understand the value of your work through the way you communicate?
Because if not, we might need to change something.
This is why content matters so much.
Not because you need to post more.
But because your content is often where people decide whether your work feels clear, coherent, and trustworthy.
Your content shouldn't read like a flyer for the concert in your neighborhood tonight, with the basic details.
It should sound like a person.
And that person needs three things: a clear identity, a clear message, and a sustainable system for showing up consistently.
Because if your identity is unclear, your content feels generic. If your message is unclear, people don't understand why you matter. And if your system is unsustainable, trust breaks every time you disappear.
People are not only buying your service.
They're buying how confidently and consistently that service lives through you.
That's the work. And that's why I do what I do.
The way I help with that is through The Expansion Formula, where we work hand in hand so you don't have to go through this alone, and we can iterate along the way.
Or through The Story That Sells You, in case you want the basics and want to do it yourself.
View original on Kit →