Fashion Business Owner Musings: Stop Holding Back in Your Business

Are you guilty of wanting everyone to like you?

Your immediate answer to that question may be, “No.” And in some ways, that’s probably true.

But in other ways, I’m willing to bet it’s not.

In business, we often hold back when it comes to being ourselves and that’s usually because we’re guilty of wanting everyone to like us.

We don’t want to make ourselves look foolish. We’re worried that if we show our true personality in our business content, our community will judge us.

And that makes us nervous. Because what if  they won’t buy from us?!

If we draw back the curtain, we’re inviting criticism and judgment. So it’s best to hold back and make sure they like us, right?

Wrong, actually.

I am going to dare to say that I believe that being unapologetically ourselves in front of our communities is one of the top factors in fashion business success.

When we stop caring so much about what others think, we’re able to relax and be ourselves. Seems pretty straightforward, right?

The thing is, too many business owners don’t realize the level of importance here.

Having a real personality as a brand (which means you have opinions and a tone and a point of view) helps you to connect deeply with the people who “get you” and repel the people who don’t.

And that’s a really good thing in business.

The default approach to business leadership is to be “put together” and “professional” and hope to attract the biggest possible audience. Brands worry about coming across as unprofessional and then overcompensate and wind up looking boring or inauthentic. Harsh but true.

Don’t believe me?

How many times have you passed on making a video because you feel “silly?”

How many times have you thought, I can’t say/do that because what if some people don’t like it?

Wanting people to like you and being worried about what people think pop up in our day-to-day business far more than we realize.

And this mindset holds us back from real progress.

I get it. I’ve been there. And sometimes I’m still there.

But I’ve become aware of it. So now I can call myself out on it.

And hopefully this post will help you do the same.

Stop holding back, designers.

Lots of love and encouragement,