embracing the risk of visibility
lana price, rose of sharon, 2026, polaroid 600, 4.25" x 3.5"
I was recently on the Woman Uncaged podcast, talking with hosts Linda and Laura about embracing risk. This post is some of my latest thinking, which was sparked by that conversation. The link to the podcast episode, in all its unfiltered glory, is at the bottom.
What does it cost to be seen? And what do we lose by staying hidden?
Two friends and business besties -- Linda Katz and Laura Gates-Lupton -- were wrestling with this question about their podcast. After five seasons, they were ready to increase the impact and visibility of the show.
Using a metaphor based on this quote: “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for…” they saw themselves as a ship safe in harbor. They were comfortable with organic growth, yet were feeling called to sail out to sea and be visible to a broader public. However, more visibility, especially on social media, also meant more risk: getting doxxed, bullied, scrutinized, and more.
Here at Pragmagical Enterprises, we’re keen on questioning the binary and finding additional options that are both/and or in-between. I reached out to them to ask two questions:
Instead of venturing out in the hopes of attracting an audience, could you go where your listeners already are? Is there another harbor you can sail into, friendly waters where you can still be seen and safe? Could you harbor hop?
Have you considered deepening instead of broadening? Could you “get to know the fish already swimming in your current harbor?” Do you know who listens to the show, and why?
While this may seem like a marketing conversation, it was really about identity. Which parts of ourselves do we want to share, and with whom? The trade-offs include visibility versus safety; being known for something versus being free to keep changing.
After the recording, I started thinking more about identity risk: being asked to explain or perform an identity before you’ve really made sense of it yourself. When moving through a big life transition, identities are falling away and new ones are blooming. How do we let ourselves be seen before we’ve made sense of who we’re becoming?
identities in motion
At one point in the episode, Laura shared a pivot she’s considering with her business, which would require leaving an identity she’s already known for. She asks, “Oh man, do I have to leave this harbor and go into another one?”
For me, it’s gone further than that. Over the past couple of years, I didn’t even know which harbor I was in.
Pretty much since the pandemic, my identity has been in constant flux. I went from single to married, lost my identity as a New Yorker when we left in 2021, had momentum on a fine art path that went on pause a few years later, was trying to release my professional identity after 20+ years, and moved even more times in-between.
When I was really in the thick of it -- totally lost and overwhelmed -- not knowing where I was going, or what would happen next, I felt very exposed. Who am I without my identity? Without my career and associated income, without place, without art? I was adrift into existential territory.
The last thing I wanted to do during this period was be seen, to expose the total incoherence of it all. The thought of meeting new people, who’d invariably ask, “So where are you from and what do you do?” was more than I could bear at times. I was avoiding friends, because I didn’t want to answer the question, “So what are you up to these days?”
Underneath all of this was a belief that I needed “the answer” before I could be seen. If I only had this magical answer to what I was doing with my life, that would make the pain and shame of not-knowing go away.
I know from experience what it looks like when one is “successful” at staying hidden. The tradeoff is that the world becomes much smaller. Self-imposed social isolation reinforces the negative belief that you don’t belong, and loneliness becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It closes avenues for the magic, possibility, and messy joy that live in interactions with other people.
experiments before answers
What shifted for me was realizing that I didn’t need to know the answer before I could face the world. I didn’t even need to know the direction where I was headed. It’s the act of experimenting -- testing ideas, seeing what happens, and how it feels -- that can reveal the direction and create the answer.
Experimentation has risk and visibility baked into it. It’s risky, because we don’t know where it will lead. And it requires visibility, because it’s the contact with the outside world that can reveal the next step.
One small example of this, in relation to identity, happened in 2014. I was standing solo at a bar and chit-chatting with the bartender, who asked me, “So what do you do?” At that moment I took a brief pause, then with a bit of courage said, “I’m an artist.”
This was the first time I said those words out loud, and I remember that exact moment viscerally.
There was a part of me that was starting to form, and feeling called to be witnessed. In the pause I took a tiny leap, and what was internal was made external.
For me, this was an important moment where I stepped into myself more fully. In sharing those words out loud with someone, in choosing to be visible, two things happened. I felt the internal alignment and aliveness. There was something true here. And I wasn’t rejected or ridiculed for revealing this truth (which was helpful, but less important).
This tiny experiment, with its inherent risk and visibility, was one of many that gave me the information and courage I needed to keep going.
embracing risk in real-time
I’m grateful to Linda and Laura for inviting me to their wonderfully unfiltered, unscripted, unedited (!) show.
Near the end of the episode, they announced their own experiment. After some consideration, they’re starting “listener salons”: live conversations with their audience to discuss recent topics from the podcast. They’re getting to know the fishes in the harbor, while increasing impact and visibility, without going out to sea. They’re living by example!
To hear our full conversation, check out the Woman Uncaged podcast episode with Linda, Laura (and me!) titled “Embracing Risk Pt. 2.”
i'm lana price and this is my biweekly-ish newsletter. i write about navigating life transitions, bridging practicality and possibility. you can find other writing here. subscribe to get these straight to your inbox.
