“Why don’t you post pictures of your sessions?” The question came from a social media marketing professional last year who was reviewing our digital presence.
“People want to see proof,” she continued.
“Pictures tell a story. If you post photos of your workshops, your training rooms, your coaching sessions, people will know you are doing real work.”
I smiled.
“And why are you not posting the events you conduct?” she added in frustration. “That is what everyone does.”
By now she was surely bewildered and pat came out the next suggestion.
“You should also record short videos,” she said enthusiastically. “Share coaching insights. Put out knowledge content regularly. People love that. You just have to let go of your shyness”
To this, I almost laughed out loud not because it was a bad idea. First I am anything but shy and second, many coaches do this beautifully and generously share their insights with the world. To each their own but for me I could not help think to myself, somewhat amused that if I start spending my days planning, recording, editing and uploading videos, when exactly will I do the actual coaching?
Running a business, working with clients, preparing for sessions and managing the very human parts of life outside work already fills my calendar quite meaningfully. Not to ignore my insatiable need to travel every second month and be an avid reader. Time is a rather finite resource so it’s anybody’s guess what I prioritise first.
And so I kept smiling! The marketing professional was not wrong and she was correct in giving the suggestions but this was something I went deeper into and wondered. Honestly, why were we not sharing “enough”. And I realised that the truth is simple. What we do is not always meant to be seen.
Coaching, leadership conversations, and even organisational training spaces are built on something far more important than visibility. They are built on trust.
When an organisation invites us in to conduct programs whether it is Executive Coaching, POSH conversations, or leadership and soft-skills training, our work often involves stories, challenges, organisational realities, and sometimes even vulnerabilities that are not meant for public consumption.
Every intervention is customised.
Every conversation is contextual.
And most often, the richness of the work lies in information that is confidential by nature.
Yes, we do take photographs at the end of the interventions but they are taken for internal documentation not for public storytelling.
For, I believe, the moment the camera becomes a marketing tool, the boundary between learning space and performance space begins to blur. People are far from their true selves knowing that they become part of stories that we use. That’s an absolute no from us!
Also not everything meaningful needs to become content.
Today, visibility is often measured by the number of posts we share, the pictures we upload, or the followers we accumulate, even on platforms like LinkedIn.
But there is another way to work.
A rather quiet and silent way. One where ethics does not allow us to document everything publicly.
Where confidentiality is not a clause in a contract but a value we practice.
Where the trust clients place in us is not traded for visibility.
If someone really wants to know what we do and how we do it, the answer is quite simple.
It takes a conversation. Preferably over coffee.
Not a scroll through curated images trying to assess credibility based on how many pictures we have posted.
It may sound a little odd and old-school in today’s times but if it protects the sanctity of the work, the people in the room, and the trust that organisations place in us, then we are perfectly comfortable with that choice.
So yes, perhaps there will be fewer photographs. Fewer “evidence posts.”
But the real work will continue.
Silently.
Ethically.
Gently.
And with the same commitment to the people who trusted us enough to let us into their most important and raw conversations.
And also because some of the most meaningful work in the world was never meant to become content. And we are absolutely fine with that.