Hello beautiful soul
Story time: I want to tell you about my time at Shazam.
I was there for almost five years. My boss was not my biggest fan, but my work spoke for itself, so somehow we went the distance. And in that time I pitched for a promotion (that did not exist, so I tried to create it) and did not get it.
It was a hard no.
I produced great work, but I was ambitious and I wanted more. So I started to take on more work. I could see the culture needed steering, so I did it. I could see that we needed some leadership development, so I did that too. Whilst I was leading recruitment and in charge of our employer brand, I also became the voice of Shazam on social platforms. We were horrible at internal comms so I did that too.
I think you are getting the picture. I didn't stop growing the whole time, even when I was told no.
But here's what I also did at that time.
People started approaching me for panels and events, because I worked at Shazam and I was fairly outspoken about the work I was doing.
I said yes to every panel and stage I was not ready for. Every podcast that made my stomach flip. Every room that felt slightly too big for me. I said yes and then I figured it out on the other side.
I networked obsessively. I built relationships inside and outside the company. I made the most of the Shazam name β because it was a brilliant name and I was not going to let it sit unused while I waited to feel ready.
I was, what I now call: "visibilitymaxxing".
[For the uninitiated "maxxing" means taking a habit, trait, or goal and pushing it to the absolute maximum or trying to optimize it completely.
But the part that people miss, is what I was ALSO doing behind the scenes at that time:
- I was building self-esteem. Real, earned, embodied self-esteem.
- I was learning what my values were and what it felt like to move from that place.
- I was proving to myself, in a genuinely challenging environment β with plenty of lovely people and also plenty of engineers who made it very clear I was not one of them β that I could hold my ground. That I belonged. That I was the real thing.
All that took me five years. Five years of showing up before I felt ready. Five years of building the inner architecture that would let me ask for something that did not yet exist on any job description.
But here's the real magic: I then got headhunted for a VP People role. That's right. The dream job that was beyond my wildest dreams... I didn't just get the job, they came to me.
Bigger than anything I had done before. A Β£30,000 pay rise. A team of fifteen. The full people function β internal comms, office team, the whole thing.
On paper that move did not make sense. For most people moving into a VP People role you would start in a more junior HR position and work your way up through the traditional route. I was not prepared to do that. I had not done it that way. And I did not need to β because I had spent five years building something that could not be put on a CV but that showed up in every room I walked into.
Leadership energy. Magnetic energy. The thing that makes people come to you instead of you having to hunt it down.
And I never once sat down and wrote a business case for why I deserved it.
I just asked the Universe for what I wanted, got to work on myself and, tah dah, it landed.
Now here is the part that makes me a little bit furious on your/our behalf.
What I did at Shazam β making myself visible before I felt ready, taking up space in rooms that felt too big, saying yes before I had all the answers β that is SO MUCH harder for women than it is for men. Structurally. Measurably. Not in our heads.
A recent report called Being Seen makes the case for professional visibility as a leadership imperative for women β and calls out the cultural contradictions, emotional labour and systemic bias that shape how women show up, or are shut out, at work. It names the emotional calculus women perform before speaking on a panel or posting on LinkedIn.
Read that again. The emotional calculus. The calculation that happens in your body before you even open your mouth. Will this land well? Will I seem too much? Will they think I am only doing this for attention? Am I even qualified enough to be saying this publicly?
Men do not run that calculation the same way. Or at least not nearly as often and not nearly as loud.
So what do we do about it? We build the muscle.
That is the only honest answer I have. Because visibility is not a personality trait you either have or you do not. It is a skill. It is a muscle. And like every muscle it is built through repetition β through doing the thing before you feel ready, feeling the discomfort, surviving it, and doing it again slightly less afraid the next time.
I said yes to panels I was not ready for. Then I was ready for them. I pitched myself for podcasts that felt audacious. Then they felt normal. I walked into rooms where I was the only woman without a technical background. Then I learned to own that room differently, not despite that, but because of it.
Every single yes built the next yes. Every room made the next room slightly less terrifying.
That is visibilitymaxxing. And it is available to you. Right now. In whatever season you are in.
But here is the thing about the muscle. You have to know where to start. And most of us do not start with the big public moment. We start with how we see ourselves. Because how you see you is everything. It shapes how you walk into rooms. How you hold yourself when you speak. Whether you soften the ask before you have even made it. Whether you apologise for taking up space before anyone has asked you to stop.
The world will see you the way you see you. Not because of some woo-woo law of attraction thing. Because your body broadcasts what you believe about yourself in ways you cannot fully control β your posture, your pace, your willingness to hold the silence after you have made the ask.
Which is exactly what I want to work on with you this Thursday.
We are going to talk about why we over-explain and under-ask. Why the business case we have been building in our heads is both impressive and completely unnecessary. And what it actually feels like β in the body, not just the mind β to ask for what you want without the apology attached.
This is the first step. How you see you.
Come. It is free. It is live. It is the real conversation.
Link here.
Rooting for you always
Ruth x
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