Hey, you guys. Before we dive into today's conversation, I wanted to give you a little context because my guest today is Kristina Vidovich. She is the founder of Women Getting Visible. She's an international speaker, a visibility and leadership strategist, a media host, a podcast producer, and she's doing some incredible work to help women step into their voice, and presence, and influence, and it's really impactful for business, of course. So Kristina and I originally met at PodFest in January earlier this year. We had immediate synergy. We started brainstorming ways we could collaborate, and that led to a podcast swap, which this is part of. But then since then, since recording this conversation, I actually flew out to Minneapolis in June to host a workshop at one of her events, and now we have some really exciting work coming up. Three events, actually, that are all on the calendar for the rest of this year and even next year. So, and these are all designed to help women entrepreneurs strengthen their message, tell better stories, and just become much more confident being seen and heard. So the first is that I'm hosting a live messaging workshop, uh, this September, September 16th in Brooklyn. So if you're listening to this in real time and you live in the New York City or Tri-State area and you wanna join us, check the show notes for information about that. Um, Kristina will be present. She'll be participating and speaking at that event. Then in October from the 9th to the 11th, I will be participating and speaking at her flagship conference in Washington, DC. I'm gonna be leading a sales workshop there. So that's gonna be very exciting and fun. Please come join us. Again, link in the show notes. And then in January of 2027, the two of us are actually sharing a stage as a part of a visibility panel at PodFest, the very place that we met in Orlando, Florida, and we'll be joined, uh, at that by Amy Nubsen, who's Christina's partner in the franchise for the Women Getting Visible events. So all of this manifested after we met, started chatting, and all of that's happened since this interview was recorded, which makes it even more relevant, um, because it just shows you how quickly things can happen when you do get visible and step into these conversations and just say yes. So today we are talking about visibility, but not just for the sake of being seen more. We're talking about why so many smart, talented women hold themselves back from being seen, and why clarity in your message actually comes before that visibility, and how to build confidence through practicing, just showing up and practicing, and what starts to happen when you finally own your expertise and just let people know what you do. So, and I especially love Christina's reminder in this conversation to just own your genius. Trust yourself. You know, really just trust yourself and then tell people about it. So if you know that you're good at what you do, but you're still struggling a little bit to consistently put yourself out there, and whether that means showing up on video, talking about your offers, pitching yourself to be on podcasts, speaking on stages, or simply walking into a room and confidently saying what you do, this episode is for you. So let's get into it, and I'll see you on the other side of my conversation with Christina Vidovich. Hey there. Welcome to the Mindset to Market podcast, your go-to space for practical tools and solutions to the everyday challenges of being a creative and soulful entrepreneur living in a material world. I'm your host, Deborah Smith, a holistic business coach and marketing strategist with 17 years of experience. I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and learn daily marketing practices that balance personal wellness with financial growth and impact. I'm here to offer you support with creativity, mindset, practical how-tos, and getting into imperfect, messy action so you can experience daily breakthroughs as you grow. If you're a purpose-driven entrepreneur building an online business, you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hello, Christina. Welcome to the Mindset to Market podcast Thank you, Debra. I'm so excited to be here today. I, I know. I , thank you so much for joining me. I, I wanna get started by asking you a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey. I know that before you started your current business, which is Women Getting Visible, you were the owner of a ballroom dance studio, and I just wanna hear a little bit about the evolution from, how you got from there to here. Yeah, absolutely. So my dance studio was called Two Left Feet. So the whole concept was- Wow ... for the beginner dancers who were afraid to go to the other studios because they were intimidating. 'Cause right away, you think of ballroom dancing, it can be intimidating if you don't know what you're doing. Who wants to walk into a room of going, "Oh my gosh, look at what they're doing. No, I'm backing out the door"? But Two Left Feet, that's, that's the place for me. It doesn't matter if I stumble, you know, the instructors are, we're gonna be supportive of those people, and that is the environment that we wanted to create. I love that. Yes. And so moving into, from ballroom dancing over into content creation, studying all the things that are going on because we're so connected now through the grandiose-ness of the internet to the world, so that's when I made that pivot into podcasting in particular, and Women Getting Visible started to pop up in its own right. I, I tell this little story about how I woke up one morning of, with Wor- Women Getting Visible going through my ears, through my brain, and had to do this. But it was also the same concept of getting visible, because we look at people who are already up on stages and went, "Wow, how did they do that? How did they get there?" And we don't wanna back out of that room. We wanna be in the room, and we wanna put people on those stages with us. So it is so fun to take somebody who knows nothing about visibility in that aspect and going, "Okay, you have messages. You're already out there. Just like dancing, you know how to walk. If you can walk, you can dance. So if you can talk, you can get out there on podcasts. You can get there on stages. You have messages that are so important, and I wanna be able to put that spotlight on you because we women have stories we need to tell." Yes. I love it so much. You know, dance was my first love. I took dance lessons and was in- you know, performance troupes and competing at like state fairs and county fairs and stuff like that until I was about 15 or 16. And when I went to college, undergrad, I continued to pursue and study modern dance, but it was really just became more of a l- you know, a love and a background thing. But to this day, nothing makes me feel happier. And I, I love that you are helping people who might not be professional to find a safe space. And I also love from a marketing point of view that you, you met people where they were at, and you made it available to and accessible to a lot of people. That's so brilliant. And it sounds like you're doing the same thing now with Women Getting Visible, this business, and your podcast. So let's talk about visibility. I think that's like, uh, it's, it's, you know, it's funny. It's like anytime something becomes very popular in online marketing spaces, it gets thrown into the category of like, oh, that's a saturated concept or, you know, that's a buzzword or whatever. But visibility is literally the key to your potential client- Mm-hmm ... knowing that you exist and hiring you for your work in the online space. So for me, visibility is a, it's like a foundational piece of your business. It's not, it's not optional. You've gotta be seen for people to find you. But in doing the work that I do, I run into this all the time. People are afraid to get visible. So I think my first question for you has to do, is like what made you realize that so many women might need help with this? And what was the moment that you knew this was a problem that you wanted to solve? I love this question. It absolutely comes from doing podcast interviews. So my previous podcast, which is still running, we're in season five now, of Women's Health, Wealth and Happiness, Interviews to Inspire, interviewing women from around the world. When the filming would stop, they would ask, "Okay, Christina, I need to get my message out there. Should I start a podcast? How do I get on my podcast? Do you know of places that I can go and speak?" I'm sitting there thinking, "Okay, yeah, I know a couple people who, you know, being in the podcast space, you know, like I can refer you to. Do you wanna get into podcasting? Well, that's a whole nother ballgame in itself, as you know." Yeah. "It's a lot of time consumption, so, you know, think about that before you do it." And those speaking spaces, you know, they're, they're out there, but how are people finding them? And I went, "Wait a minute. Hmm. It's a pain point." P- women are coming to me episode after episode with the same pain point of how do I get my message out there. So somewhere in the back of my mind in manifestation was, I can do this. I can create something for women to go and share their messages, and it became the stages. So that is one thing that was just so important of going, okay, because, yes, it's okay, you know, we have all these stages. It's just like the CEO boardrooms, where 80% tend to be men, 20% women, and so many of these speaking opportunities are the same. So what about creating a stage that was by women, for women? I love it. So good. And you're the perfect person to do it. You're my SAG sister, and you have the warmest heart, so it's easy, I think, for people to, to trust you because you're authentically a warm, engaging, you know, connective person. So- Thank you that's, it's so wonderful. Okay, let's talk about visible versus invisible. What does it actually look like in real life or in business to become more visible? What does that... Is it just, you know, being seen more often on your social media? Is it speaking on stages? Mm, I love this because this is this, one of the things that I teach, and it came out of my own process as well, as a lot of us learn, you know, as it comes to us. Clarity, alignment, visibility. Okay. So until we have that clarity of our message, that clarity of who we are, what we represent, what we stand for, the rest of it's just kinda noise putting out there. Because it's like, "Oh, I'm doing this, and I'm doing this, I'm doing this." Well, wait a minute. You know, even as you know in marketing, if we can't clear, get to that clear message, what exactly is it are you doing, someone's just gonna walk by and going, "I don't know. That was confusing." Yeah, it's too confusing. Yeah. So it's like until we get that clarity, the visibility, we're just chasing it in too many directions. Yeah. So that clarity of your message starts, which brings in the alignment. Now people can go, "Oh, that is for me," or, "That's not for me," and you start to find those people in your realm in that alignment. The right p- the right, uh, referrals as well start to come in your direction. Mm-hmm. Then the visibility starts to take off, and that visibility through business- Will be there because now, oh, clear message, aligning with the right people, boom, visibility will naturally take off without the chasing anymore. So that invisible space is still when you're s- not telling people exactly where you want them to find you. And you know we bury ourselves, too, in that fear of success. Yeah. I mean, so I had a very successful business doing something with the public-facing element being very much about not just health and wellness, but specifically juice, juice bars, smoothies, smoothie bars. And I came from marketing. I was the marketing director of my juice bar business, but what people saw on the internet was juices, smoothies, that was my brand. I'd been mentoring business coaching for years and years and years, over a decade, but I wasn't talking about it on the internet. I was just doing it behind the scenes, solving a pain point. When it came time for me to, closed the juice bar, shift public-facing content towards this other thing, I really struggled. I was like, "Everyone's gonna hate me for not being the juice lady anymore and shutting down the juice bar, and I'm g- they're gonna be like, 'Wait, business coach?'" Even though I'd been doing it, I hadn't been, like, building the brand muscle. Ask my husband. We have a household joke about my midlife crisis- which was all about visibility because even though I'm completely comfortable being on camera, doing any of that stuff, I... It was the mess- it was the lack of clarity of how to talk about it. So I love that answer because for listeners, take the time to go inward and think about how, how you wanna speak about the thing you're bringing to the table, the thing that you wanna be known for and/or the how you wanna serve. Because then it gets really easy to get visible when you clear that up. Exactly. I love that so much. So but let's talk about it. What do you think is the real reason that women hold themselves back from being visible? I mean, I just shared my issue, which was just fear of being hated by people. But w- is it fear? Is it conditioning, lack of strategy, or what are you seeing out there? Yeah. You know, fear. Fear is the biggest reason. If you're not a- used to being exposed, if you're not a- used to being out there in the public eye, you're not necessarily ready for the nos that are gonna come. I mean, think about when you're... Anybody who's a new business owner, you're so excited about, "I have this product for you. I'm ready to go," and that first person tells you no. Yeah. You're like, "Oh." It's, yeah, it's, it, it, and you hang onto that for a while without realizing, "Oh, it's not me. They're not in a space that they don't need my product. It has nothing to do with..." So when you can detach that and realize that it's two different spaces, but it's that fear that holds us back of, "Oh, what if another no comes?" What if another no comes? You wanna find that yes. You wanna keep going because that's where the excitement starts to happen. And that fear we can just release and let go, because how many times in our lives, especially when we're starting our own businesses, "Oh, you're gonna make money doing what? That? How?" Like an artist of any sort. Yeah. "You're gonna be able to do that?" Even with dance. There's another one. How many times I had instructors who came in for the interview and was like, "Well, I know I'll never make money out of it." I'm like, "Then you don't know who's hiring you." Yeah. Yeah. The marketplace is wild. You can sell anything as long as you believe in it, but you have to be visible. You have to put yourself out there and then show people what it is that you have. Yes. So working through those fears and realizing those voices, those no-saying voices, aren't yours, so don't hold onto them. Yeah. That's good. I know, and I think, too, people are afraid of... There are genuinely mean people on the internet. Like, there's bullies. There's people out there who will just come for your, like, hairstyle or your outfit. That's totally true. Like, have you ever... I've... You know, you see it. I kind of st- I try to stay away from that totally. I try to just be that person who's always, like, clapping and cheering for people on the internet. But- Same ... I think there's a genuine fear also of just being judged. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, being judged for basic surface things like how you look, and that type of piece of it is, I think, very real for people. Yeah. Yeah. And it's learning to ignore that those people are coming in a different space. They're in a place where they're feeling judged all the time, so what do they wanna do? They're gonna respond by judging. They're not your supporters. They're not the people who are gonna be behind you, so just walk away from that. There's no reason to be in that room. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm always telling my coaching clients, "Haters gonna hate, but we elevate." We don't do that. Yes. It's, it's just not a good use of your time to get pulled into the sludgery. So but for somebody who is feeling maybe a little bit unseen in their business or struggling to figure out the cadence of how they wanna show up on, on, like let's say social media or, you know, working up the courage to pitch themselves for a podcast or, or maybe pitch themselves to speak at an event or even... You know, I, I, I remember when I first went to the local library to ask them if I could teach a free class many years ago, and it took me like two or three weeks to actually go over there and do it even though I knew I could help. Um, what would you, what would you say is like a first small action they can take, maybe even starting this week or even today, that might start building some visibility and some confidence around it? Yes. I love this. You know, you've gotta start somewhere, right? Th- I mean, the, anything is baby steps. You have to start somewhere. So taking a moment, put your camera up Film yourself. As awful as that may sound or seem to someone, put it up, see how you're presenting. Because, "Oh, wait, my, my blouse isn't ironed. I should iron that before I show up." Okay, something that simple. "Oh, well, I'm listening to my voice and I sound unsure of myself." Well, if you think you sound unsure to yourself, how do you think somebody else is gonna present that? So it's those little things that are practice, and if you're not ready to film yourself yet, try a few times in the mirror or talking to the table, the empty table with no one around it as if they're sitting there in front of you. That is one of the things I absolutely love to do. I talk to my dining room table. You know, it's like, "Here I am. I'm holding the conference. Okay, I practiced. Good, I'm ready to go." But it's an opportunity to hear myself speak and get over those fears of when I'm showing up in those rooms. So let yourself practice and, and listen to yourself. That's such- Don't be afraid ... such good advice, and I love... It's coming from, you know, a performer, the fact that you were, you know, a professional ballroom dancer at one point and that you've taught dance. It's such, it's such good guidance because we need to practice. Like, dancers and people performing music and people who, you know, entertainers, actors, people who look really good on screen, they've been practicing for decades before they looked good on screen. Like, they practice a lot. That's how they got the job. Exactly. Same thing for us for our visibility. We have to... It's okay to run it a bunch of times before you film it. That's a great piece of advice. I love it. It's something... Yeah. Thank you. Exactly. Okay. So what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see women make when they try to put themselves out there? Great question. You know, you had mentioned the word authenticity, and I know that's one of those words that can get overused, but showing up as your authentic self, showing up as your genuine self, I love that word genuine. Not trying to imitate being somebody else, being yourself, and taking the time. Don't walk into a networking room or networking Zoom and try to meet every single person that's there. Make a goal of one or two people that you are going to spend some time and connect with, who you feel in alignment with, versus throwing those business cards around and nobody's gonna remember your face. "Oh, I've got this business card. Boom, I'm dropping it in the trash because I don't remember who this person is." But if you take that time, who are you going to spend time with? Someone that you know, like, and then trust. That is where the exchange comes in. Whether it's the social exchange or the financial exchange, you want that know, like, trust. Spend the time. So yeah, that's one of the biggest mistakes is dr- you know, going in, dropping, and leaving. No. Yeah. I've seen that actually. Like, I... We talked about this a little bit when we met. There were tables that were scattered with just these, like, haphazard, chaotic piles of business cards. I'm like, "Who's... Who can even fish out..." Like, what, how... Like, is someone fishing for random business cards? What is, what are... It makes no sense. Whereas you could sit and have a conversation with somebody and, and leave with one true connection versus, like, just scattering your, you know, information. That's good advice, yeah. Well, that's how we met. I think, I think one of the things I think about a lot, uh, with my business is mindset shift and how can I help my clients reimagine or, or envision a new way to think about something when they have a block? So specific to visibility, how can we help women shift from, "I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna be seen. There's... Hell no, I'm not putting my face on video," or, you know, just that fear right, to at least feeling safe with it? Like, what are the steps? How can we help people envision a path from h- heck no to, "Yeah, I can film myself on an Instagram reel," or, "I can speak in front of a room full of people." Like, what do we, what do we do to get people in that mindset? Yes. Another great question. I love these questions, Deborah. Two things come to my mind right away. One, own your genius. You have already spent how much time working on your business? You know your stuff. You could go teach a class at a university for everything that you're doing now. Trust yourself. Mm. Own your genius, trust yourself. And thirdly, go out and tell people about you. We don't know that you exist until you tell us that you exist. And if it's just baby steps one at a time, showing up at a new networking event and making that one connection, you don't know who that one person knows that might put you in touch with your next client. So get out there and just one step at a time. When you're ready to show up on social media and video, do. If you need to just put s- you know, stock video out there for now, do. But let people know that you're out there, that you're in your genius, and trust yourself. I love that. I feel like people need support around that, which is what you're doing, literally, because when we're in a room with a bunch of different women and a bunch of... You know, there's this power of, community that feels so uplifting. So I think another thing possibly is join a networking group like yours and become a part of a room full of women who are practicing, right? Yes. Cool. So- You have a regular Wednesday networking event, is that correct? Tell me about your Wednesday event. Yes. Yes. So Wednesdays we have our visibility accountability group. So again, when we think about visibility, the first thing we think about is, "Oh, I'm on the stages, I'm out in the public, I'm out everywhere." But visibility starts from the inner work. So this is the room that's there to support you so that you can work through, in a supportive environment, your messaging. What does it look like to show up online? What does it look like to speak in front of stages and people out there who are already looking for you that you didn't even know are already looking for you? So it is a supportive environment every Wednesday, and it is part of our community. We offer that for everybody to come for one month for free to make sure, "Okay, this is in alignment with where I wanna be," and to meet the other room- women in the room with you to go, "Yes, these are the women who are also up here to, to lift me up." And you'll find that with us. So are you guys doing, like, workshop style work? Are you interview... Is it interviews or is it basically topic-based working through topics? Yes, topic-based. We work through a topic, and each week it's slightly different. So this month is all about showing up, because visibility starts by showing up, and who do you have to show up for first? Yourself. Yourself. I love it. Wow, that sounds amazing. That sounds like a perfect place for somebody to get started if they're looking for a next step to take to get in a room with women doing the work, right, doing the practice. That's very cool. So what do you think changes for a woman once she fully steps into her visibility? Like, what's possible for business? What's possible for life when we overcome the fear, when we step into these new places and say, "You know what? Raise my hand. I could be the one that you want on your show," or, "Hey, come check out my business and invite me to your event"? Um, and just getting ourselves out there, what's possible for us? Yes. I think you just said it right there. But, you know, it is really about confidence. You know, because we're coming from a place where it's like, "Okay, I have to be confident to get out there, and how do I get confidence until I'm out there? I'll be more confident once I'm there." You know what? Find that. Find that little space inside yourself, because that confidence will come. That confidence, every conversation that you have is going to lift you up, and then everyone in those rooms that you're gonna be are going to start noticing your glow, of going, "Wow." Because what is that gonna do? That is going to uplift you and your business, and it continues. That circle continues. It starts slow over here, but it's gonna continue to move up and up and up throughout what you're doing. And of course, the more successful you are and that you feel that you are, the more confidence that you're gonna be sharing to the world. Yeah, and I just think too, like, you know, living with anxiety or fear around being seen, I think it, it, it can impact more than just you don't make enough money, right? Like, people who feel deeply afraid to Be judged, be seen, be criticized, fail publicly. I think failing publicly is a big one. That permeates deeper into your physical being than just your business isn't making as much money as it could, right? It's like people lose sleep over that kind of thing, so it's very healing to allow yourself to be seen. It's very healing to admit to the world, "I have a dream. I have a thing that I wanna do." And I love, I love... Everything that I've seen you do, Christina, has been just so inspiring because there's so many different women interacting with your organization. There's so many... Every type of business, every type of message, it's really quite universal. So bravo to you for bringing, more women's work and voices to stages. If someone's listening and thinking, "Hey, this is me. I need this support," beyond the Wednesday night event, what do you have in going on, or what's the best way for them to start working on it with you? Yes, absolutely. Come visit me on womengettingvisible.com. That's a great place to start to learn about all of the conferences that we have, the events, the workshops we have going on. I love to travel, so I meet women where they are in their cities and make it happen so that you can find places that you can actually be in the room as well. You can meet me for a one-on-one call and say, "Hey, I need some help with this space in my visibility. What does that look like?" I'm happy to sit down with anybody and have that initial conversation of going, "You know what? I think this is what we need to do." Because I'm nev- trying to change anybody, I'm just trying to bring you and put that spotlight on the genius that you already have, and there's so many of us out there who just need that little nudge. And definitely, you can find me on LinkedIn, 'cause I... Do I live on LinkedIn? Maybe. You're, I think you're the most... I see more of your content on LinkedIn than any other friend of mine. It's so awesome. I'm always like, "Christina, doing it." I love it. I love... It's inspiring me to do more on LinkedIn. But events, you have several events coming up, right? Our next big conference is October 10th in Washington, D.C., and we're in the beginning stages of planning our January conference in Florida. Ooh. So, yes. And then Deborah and I are planning visibility dinners up in New York City- In September ... in September. Yes. More to come on that. Yeah, I'm so excited about that. Cool. October in DC, and January in Florida. We'll, I'll drop all those dates in the show notes I love to promote events. Okay, christina, thank you so much for sharing some of your wisdom and your thoughts about visibility with us. Anything that you wanna share, last thoughts for the audience about what it means to be visible or just inspiring thoughts about visibility in general? Yes. Well, don't be afraid. That right there, don't be afraid. There's no reason for the fear. It's not your voice that's the fear. Step into your genius and trust yourself. And again, if you want some support, come on and reach out. I'll be there for you, as well as I know other women who are there for you as well. And my other piece of advice, you gotta like, follow, and subscribe this podcast, Mindset to Market, with Deborah C. Smith. I love what you just said, "It's not your voice that's the fear." That's so powerful. It's totally true. It's not your voice that's the fear. It's imaginary, or it's the echo of the remnants of something that you saw or heard about in another lifetime or something, but it's not real. Take action, ladies. I love this. Yeah, and we need every single woman listening to this, and men, you can be a part of the support system for this. Women getting visible is not just a women's action, right? It's... We need everyone on board for it. Yeah, exactly. So I hope this is inspiring, and I hope that everyone is thinking about ways in which they can take a little baby step forward in your visibility. Just remember, the more people that see you and know about your business, the more sales you can make, so let's all be brave. Thank you so much, Christina, for your time today. And for my listeners, thanks for joining us today on this journey. As always, may you be vibrant.
