Hi Reader,

This is part 3 of a behind-the-scenes series on our recent co-founder trip to Milan. You can catch up on part 1 here and part 2 here.

Last week we told you about our not-a-secret-anymore Boutique Meta Ads Agency, the framework we run both businesses through to protect our capacity, and the fact that we made some decisions in Milan we were proud of.

Where our last email left off was about the time we were both doing some reflective journaling for our business around the goals that we want to achieve over the upcoming year. There’s something about pen & paper that allows you not to hide behind the inner walls you’ve built for yourself. So when we each wrote down, and then honestly blurted out “these goals can only be reached if we stop hiding with our visibility.”

If I’m being really honest, it wasn’t a shock to either of us. It was a shock that we were both ready to admit it, and saying it out loud meant we were ready for a change. Even if it means we have to get uncomfortable in order to do it.

We have been playing small on our own visibility, and the thing is, it didn't show up as fear. It showed up as busy.

The agency was running. The funnels were working. The email sequences were doing their job. There was always something productive to point to, always a reason why right now wasn't quite the moment to show up more boldly in the places that actually required us to be seen.

What we didn't want to say out loud — until our in person trip to Milan — is that we had been letting all of that busyness quietly stand in for the visibility work we kept saying we were going to do.

When you stop showing up visibility for your goals, it’s easy to quietly hum along until they’re no longer something you’re even working towards anymore.

Here's where we got honest:

We have a journaling membership that we talk about between ourselves almost every single day. We believe in it deeply. We have watched it change the way women make decisions, lead themselves, and move through the harder seasons of business ownership. And we have largely been keeping it tucked inside our funnels — sharing it with people who are already looking for it, rather than showing up in the places where the right women might find it for the first time.

That's not a strategy problem. That's a visibility problem. And underneath that, if we're being honest, it's a courage problem.

Ginny literally teaches a workshop called Brave Visibility. Once a year. To a room full of women who are ready to stop shrinking. And even she found herself playing small, and getting comfortable with hiding behind the day-to-day work.

She will be the first to tell you, the work has a way of finding you right where you've been avoiding it.

What made this in person trip different from every other conversation we've had about this is that we weren't strategizing. We weren't building a content plan or mapping out a posting schedule. We were just being honest with each other, in a way that's easier in person than it ever is on a screen.

We asked ourselves the same questions we ask our clients.

Where are you hiding? What are you waiting for? What would it look like to actually show up for the goals you say you have?

The answers came from our journals first. Then from each other. And now, apparently, from an email to you — because that's how this works. You share it out loud, and it becomes real. Something you can start to act on.

So here's what's different starting now.

We're showing up here more — more behind the scenes, more of the real conversation, more of what it actually looks like to run this business from the inside. And we're committing to showing up on video over on Instagram, talking about the CEO Journal Club and Built for Both the way we talk about them to each other, and our clients already inside doing the work with us.

And a big part of that is understanding our WHY:

We're doing it because the right women deserve to find us. And they can't find what they can't see. We’re doing it because we each have personal goals that we want to achieve, and we want to achieve them through doing this work.

We want to welcome 100 new CEO Journal Club members by the end of this year.

We want to host in person journaling & Self-Leadership retreats for business owners in Europe (Ginny found the location years ago already)!

And listen, we’ll always keep it real with you. We have been busy over the last year. We were in a building phase of Built for Both, our six-month group coaching program where clients get the deepest strategic support as they navigate life-changing decisions around their time, energy, capacity, and goals. It deserved our full attention.

But after it was built, we still “stayed busy” as a means to hide from our bigger goals. And that’s truly the message we wanted to share with you. Has there ever been a time when being busy kept you from being visible long after the project was over?

Here are a few journaling prompts to support you if this email resonated with you:

1. Where have you been hiding in plain sight — staying busy in the places that feel productive but avoiding the ones that actually require you to be seen?

2. What's something you believe in deeply that you've been underselling, undersharing, or keeping too close to your chest?

3. What would the next six months look like if you decided to stop waiting for the perfect moment and just showed up?

Stay Supported,

Elli + Ginny

P.S. We'd love to know if you liked this email series, and, if so, what you'd love more support with as you work towards showing up for your own goals in a bigger way? Hit reply. We always write back.