I have a

confession to make.

I've been hiding

behind my business.

Now I know how that sounds.

I know how that might sound

to you, but Emma, you're

recording this podcast.

Uhhuh, Emma, you

run awesome events.

Uhhuh, Emma, you've

been in business for

a long time, Uhhuh.

I know.

See, here's the thing.

I actually don't like being

the centre of attention.

I know that sounds weird.

I'm sure that there's some

business owners out there

who feel exactly the same

way, and this is for you.

Here's what I did to hide.

I have had this podcast for

almost five years, I think

it is, and for four of those

years, guess what I did?

I had guests on the podcast.

It was so awesome.

I got to amplify

someone else's business.

I got to ask questions

because I'm a good question

asker, and I get to.

You guessed it.

Hide behind the mic.

Wow.

When I run events, I have

people that help me with

events, which is amazing,

and I try very hard to

get on and off stage

as quickly as possible.

If you have ever been to

an event, you'll see me do

this, even this podcast, I

try really hard to make it

short, sharp, helpful all

the things, and then get off.

But Brianna, who is my

podcast, producer, she is

head honcho at Bambi Media.

Her and I had a very

honest conversation and she

said to me, Emma, people

need to see who you are.

You see, I've got this dilemma

about people seeing who I

am and me oversharing or me

sharing in a way that actually

doesn't serve my audience.

And I've been talking

a lot recently about

how do you show up in a

way that is really you?

Of course, my

podcast is really me.

I run this thing and also.

Serve your audience

and not do stories that

are just self-serving.

Now, I'm about to tell

you a story, right?

I was recently in Western

Australia for Serena's 50th

birthday, and I thought to

myself, her husband might

ask me to make a speech.

I'll write one in my

head and so that I'm

ready to go two hours.

Two hours.

I sit there working

through the story and

thinking to myself, no,

that's just a story that's

funny to her and me.

No, that's just a story

that's funny to me.

No, that's just a story that's

funny to her and me and I was.

Racked with trying to

think about, how would I

say some amazing things

about my amazing sister

and business bestie.

She's our business manager

and she's been in the

business for seven years.

I've only been

going for eight.

And uh, she's the yin to my

yang, the kit to my cat, you

know, and I really struggled

to put something together,

one, knowing I was gonna be

in the spotlight, and two

that was so focused on her.

And I think we've

all been there.

Yeah.

Where we are putting content

out and we are like, does

this serve our audience or

is this just serving me?

And I always want it

to be about, I wanna

serve my audience.

Does that sound cliche?

Probably.

Here's the thing though.

I see so many women

doing the same thing.

So even if you think about

business development,

oh yeah, I'm doing

business development.

How are you doing

business development?

I'm creating content or

I'm talking to my clients

via text message, or I'm

providing a service and

that's taking up all my time.

I can't possibly

show up to an event.

You know, it outworks in

so many ways, doesn't it?

But if I can show

up, oh my goodness.

Anyone can show up now.

I'm an introvert.

I know that's

gonna sound funny.

I'm also in human

designer generator, and

so people plug in and

kind of get their energy.

But also I need to be on my

own to get my own energy.

I. Recently I was listening

to a group of women talk

about all the reasons as

to why they couldn't do

the thing, and I thought to

myself, I'm not gonna give

myself the excuse that I'm

an introvert, therefore,

I can't do A, B, and C.

No, no, I'm an introvert.

Therefore I can use my energy

in this way, and here's what

I need to recoup that energy.

because here's the thing,

here's what I know we are

in this interesting place.

Some would call it

a trust recession.

I would say we're in this

really interesting place where

people don't have the same

level of trust as they did

personally, professionally,

in business, in corporate.

It's just not there.

Guess what?

Hiding does.

Hiding amplifies that.

So we have to stop hiding

behind our content.

Stop hiding behind our laptops

and stop hiding whatever

it is that we are hiding.

Because if our clients,

our audience, our target

market cannot see us,

there's very small

chances of them liking us.

There's a very small chance

of them knowing us, and

there's certainly not a

chance them trusting us to

deliver a result to them.

Am I making sense?

Sometimes I speak gobbledygook

and I realize that, I'm

really glad that Brianna's

not on this call with me

because right now she'll

be cracking up at me.

Thank you Brianna.

And so I wanna ask you this.

What's the cost for you

of not showing up?

Is there a cost?

Because there's many people

who are going through

their business, they're

plotting along, they're

like, yeah, I'll show

up when I feel like it.

I'll show up.

When I need to, I'll

show up when I need

business, the times that

you should be showing up.

I feel like you need to

have some kind of plan to

show up really consistently.

We are very consistent.

if you're listening to

this through your ears,

please know we've got

a YouTube channel now.

Please jump on that

and watch my face.

I am showing up

in all the places.

And a couple of years ago,

I was heavily, heavily on

LinkedIn and it was me.

It wasn't a bot, it wasn't

any AI palava, it was me.

And one of my friends rang me.

She said, Emmy,

you are everywhere.

And I chose to take

that as a compliment.

Wasn't meant like that,

but I chose to take it

as a compliment because I

thought, well, I'm showing up.

Like you can't say I haven't

heard of Emma McQueen.

We do all the content, we

do all the newsletters, we

do all the podcasting,

we do all the YouTubeing.

I show up for my

community like I'm there.

Even on the days I

don't feel like it.

Now, you might be sitting

there going, you know me

well enough, and when are the

days you don't feel like it?

There are days, trust me,

there are days where I

don't feel like showing

up, but I do it anyway

because I make the choice

to show up for my community.

I think that's the other

thing about at the moment,

everyone's talking about how

do we make this more personal?

How do we personalize this?

How to create a community?

How do we bring

people together?

How do we connect

people when we show up?

My go-getter days are a

terrific example of that.

Everyone shows up.

Everyone loves a day out.

I'm up there trying as quickly

as I can to get off the stage

and last go getter day, I said

to one of the attendees, oh,

I just hate public speaking.

They're like, what?

I'm like, I know, but I do it

for my community 'cause it's

gonna serve the community.

And she was like, you

shouldn't hate that.

I'm like, well that's,

that's who I am.

But I'm learning

to reframe that.

I like showing up

for my community.

I like showing up for

my one-on-one clients.

I like showing up

for my thriving unit.

I like showing up

for Go-getters days.

I like showing up to

events that I don't run.

Oh my goodness.

I went to event last week.

It was an amazing event

run by our village, which

used to be St. Kilda mums.

It was their charity

event for lunch.

460 women in the room,

actually probably 400 and.

55 'cause there was

a few blokes there.

And do you know what I loved?

I loved that everyone

was showing up,

making a day of it.

I mean, some were mum's

gone wild, let's be honest.

But I showed up.

I didn't have to

organize anything.

It wasn't my event.

I could come and

go as I pleased.

It was awesome.

I didn't have to do that, but

it totally filled my bucket,

and that's what I wanna say.

I wanna say that when you show

up, unexpected things happen.

I had the most

joyful afternoon.

I danced my little heart out.

Incidentally, I was wearing

the right shoes, chose to wear

sneakers instead of heels.

Every other person looked like

they were wearing heels, and I

was very happy with my choice

not to brag, just saying

sneakers is it in a bit?

I love them.

And I danced my heart out.

I felt like I had beautiful

conversations, showed

up in a way that was

authentic to me and had a

great day, and beautiful

things happened from that.

So I guess the question

that I wanna ask you is.

Are you showing up in a

way that you need to be

for your community?

And I think over time

that can change as well.

Or are you hiding

behind your computer?

Is this your permission

slip to show up in a

way that works for you?

I don't know, just

some thoughts.

Love to hear what you think.

If you've got a biz

buddy who's like.

Not showing up right

at the minute, and

they need to show up.

Send them this.

Say, Emma McQueen has this.

Send them this.

Send it to your biz

buddies and let us know

how you're going to show

up or how you might be

showing up differently.