Nobody wins when you're not showing up
The real cost of cancel culture is women being scared to say what they think
Happy Monday,
I’m just back from a windswept but wonderful weekend in Cromer. The kind where you belly laugh from breakfast until bedtime because you’re with the friends who keep you sane and who always find a funny side, even in the midst of grief, global crises and good old perimenopause.
Nothing to see here - just me penning my thoughts and perusing the papers in Cromer!
No kids to tend to and no husbands getting restless at all the sitting gave rise to a pleasing amount of time to peruse the weekend papers, where I stumbled across Fearne Cotton reflecting on her reinvention from presenter to owner of wellbeing brand Happy Place. In it, she spoke about cancel culture, the fear of saying and doing the wrong thing, and I really sat with that for a while because it’s such a bloody big issue.
I’ve never met a single woman who doesn’t worry at least a LITTLE bit about what other people think of them. It’s one of the things that I think we do get bolder about as we age. At 43 I can certainly say I’m a lot more confident than I was in my twenties and thirties (just me?). But the worry we carry about saying or doing the wrong thing affects us in so many ways, from speaking up at home, in inter-generational conversations that happen in the workplace, over the dinner table or even online. There is nowhere this pesky little critter called judgement doesn’t show up to try and thwart us, minimise us and keep us exactly where we’ve always been, now I think about it.
Parenting? Ooh no, don’t do it like THAT, little Johnny needs you there 24/7!
What do you MEAN you’re planning on going away on ANOTHER work trip, why did you have children if you weren’t prepared to put them first?
You have spent HOW MUCH on a business mastermind?!!????!
Fearne Cotton is right. Judgement and cancel culture is real. And it’s not just for celebrities or people with huge platforms. It’s a stick that’s waved around whether by our imaginations or in real encounters, to challenge us to decide our own level of fortitude.
Recently I got an angry DM from someone I don’t know, accusing me of being anti semitic for showing my support for Gaza on social media. I was surprised, because it wasn’t a post about anything other than humanity, but also not, because social media is full of trolls and I, of course, know this even if up until that moment I had had no real direct experience to speak of.
(In case you don’t already know me on @saleswithsara my Instagram account exists to help women overcome the fear they feel about putting themselves in the limelight, so that they can show up confidently and promote their businesses in a way that feels good to them and helps buyers make easy decisions in their own time. It’s whole MO is to normalise seeing me selling on a near daily basis, to give you inspiration.)
Sometimes, showing up there means showing up for things outside the tiny boxes of business and sales. I wouldn’t be a very good living embodiment of the things I stand for if I kept myself confined to speaking only about sales 100% of the time. My business doesn’t constrain all the other themes and threads that make up the fact that I’m a human being living on planet Earth, and if you’re a business owner too, neither should yours. I tend to share what’s on my mind without as much thought as some others about what might happen off the back, but I’ve always been a little countercultural like that. I think it’s the Aquarius in me.
Social media has given us all more opportunity to connect over things we believe in. It’s unchartered territory and that can be both a blessing and a snake pit. Even if you’re not as naturally rebellious as I am, don’t for one moment think that this is a time for women to shrink themselves back down. To be absolutely clear: nothing good happens when we do that. As business owners, showing up is par for the course and NOT showing up because you’re scared of what someone might think is the quickest way to tank momentum, future revenue and, frankly, your overall sense of participation and confidence.
It doesn’t put more money in your pocket, which you can spend on causes close to your heart. Staying quiet doesn’t make it easy for you to show up as the best version of yourself if it renders you stressed to the eyeballs about how you’re going to pay your bills with less money coming in. And it certainly doesn’t help the charitable causes that so desperately need more help in all seasons.
Shrinking down is not the real safe option at all. In fact, I would argue that safety comes instead from getting more businesses, especially women owned businesses to a place where you have the certainty that you can pay your bills no matter what.
Every day, women censure themselves in a way that I just don’t think is serving us, because we don’t want to risk “rocking the boat” or causing an accidental furore. We are so new into business ownership - literally we are the first generation of women who can actually set up businesses this readily and sometimes that ties us in knots because we don’t have a rule book for how to navigate everything that comes up along the way. We want to reach for the stars, but we also want the space and time to raise families and stay sane along the way. Most of our mothers’ didn’t have the option to be CEOs, so what they learnt about how to “be successful” is equal parts outdated and substandard for this moment in time.
So, we’re figuring it all out as we go. And if you’re feeling wobbly AF about showing up right now, you’re certainly not alone. That’s why I’m joining forces with
and to host an evening designed to embolden you to show up for your business even in uncertain times. Between the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, The war in the Ukraine and the current Middle East crisis, there have been multiple examples in recent times of how global political and humanitarian events can make us feel like it’s not the right time to be present or put yourself out there.But really, what good does that do?
The economy needs more impact-driven women participating, not less.
And that means making peace with the way you show up and sell, in all seasons.
We want to help you find your mojo again!
✅ Overcome the fear
✅ Show up with authenticity and joy
✅ Sell to have the ultimate impact
Why Attend?
Many founders and women in business feel overwhelmed and reluctant to show up online, especially during challenging times. This event offers a fresh perspective: by showing up and generating more income, you gain the financial freedom to support the causes you care about and achieve your personal goals.
Special Cause:
All profits from this event will be donated to MAP (Medical Aid For Palestinians), a UK-based charity providing medical aid to the people of Palestine.
Your participation not only benefits your personal and professional growth but also contributes to the hugely important work MAP do to support women and children with their Maternal and Child Health Project.
The Maternal and Child Health Project works to support women in Palestinian refugee camps all across Lebanon.
MAP midwives provide vital care to Palestinian women and their infants.
The money raised from this event will help these trained midwives and community nurses to continue to reduce preventable causes of poor maternal and child health and provide antenatal and postnatal services to Palestinian women including much needed physical assessment and counselling, feeding support and health checks that nobody else is offering them right now.
There is no other health provider operating in refugee camps that gives women the time, space, explanation, assistance, and awareness that this project gives. It’s so important and we can all make a difference.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace joy and authenticity in your online presence
Sell with confidence and ease
Increase your visibility and impact
Achieve financial freedom to support your passions and causes
Join us and take this opportunity to transform your approach to selling online aso that you can show up more for the causes YOU care about.
Reserve your spot today and be part of a community committed to growth, impact, and positive change.
See you there!
Sara x
What a dream team ❤️
This is going to be SUCH a great conversation Sara!