The Millennial & Gen X Guide to Visibility with Fi Mims

Fi Mims is a seasoned personal branding photographer and business coach who’s passionate about helping women step into their authority and build powerful, profitable businesses. 

You’ll hear practical visibility hacks, insights on building deeper connections both online and in-person, and how Fi transitioned her business by blending personal brand expertise with smart systems.

We covered:

00:00 Defining visibility for clients
04:04 Navigating social media challenges
07:05 Social media mindset and strategies
12:24 Challenges with social media engagement
14:45 Helping clients invest in themselves
18:32 Why we love coaching
20:27 Adapting photography career with age
23:33 Building a supportive team
26:25 Building self-belief in business

LINKS:

FREE GUIDE: Sell Out & Retain Mastermind Clients in 2026: https://ellieswift.com/mastermind2026

Connect with Ellie on Instagram: https://instagram.com/elliehswift

Subscribe to Inside The Mastermind Newsletter: https://ellieswift.com/newsletter

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elliehswift

Keen to work together?

1. Sell Out Your Mastermind: The Mastermind Model - https://ellieswift.com/model
2. Be Coached By Ellie to $500k+ : The Scalable Freedom Mastermind - https://ellieswift.com/scalablefreedom

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Fee Mims is a personal branding photographer and business coach who helps women be seen and build powerful personal brands. After experiencing burnout in her own photography business, Fee realized that success without a strong personal brand has limits. That turning point led her to refine her niche, elevate her positioning, and grow her business while working fewer hours before stepping into coaching. Today, through her Shine Bright Mastermind, she helps women 40 plus step into their authority and build more profitable, sustainable, service-based businesses. Known for her warm, grounded approach, she combines strategic insight with over 20 years of real-world experience to help women go from invisible to in demand. So, Faye, your work obviously is around visibility. And I say obviously because I will have just gone through your bio. What does that actually mean to you? Because I, especially in 2026, I think that word's getting thrown around so much. But people think about it in so many different ways. Like when you think about visibility in terms of your clients, what are you actually thinking about?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

I'm actually going to answer that by firstly saying what my clients or my audience thinks visibility is when I mention it. And it immediately their head, their head just goes to, oh my gosh, I have to show up on video on social media. Yeah. It's like the worst case scenario. It's like the one thing they think of, just video on socials? Which is the worst, right? If you haven't been doing that or if you're not comfortable there. So I always have a bit of a laugh about that because yes, that's where our heads will often go. Um, I feel I think about visibility, I mean, you can think of it in a um singular sense as just showing up and showing your face. And that's absolutely one definition of visibility. But I like to think of it as broad and deep. So broadly speaking, and from a business perspective, any way you show up anywhere is visibility. So, yes, that's on video on socials, but it's also in images on socials, it's in the DMs, that's visibility, it's it's podcasting like this, it's sending out your newsletters. I I feel like it's anything where you are showing up so that you are connecting with your audience and they're getting a sense of your presence and who you are, which doesn't always have to be visual, although obviously it it feels like in I suppose the the biggest sense of the word, it's it's visual. Yeah, it can be, but um, and there's different layers of visibility, right? And so, yes, showing up on video, I do say to people like that is probably one of the best types because they get all all of you, they get your voice, they get your you know, your your visual, but also a feel for your personality because they get that depth as well, as opposed to just sharing an image or writing a quick caption or something. So yeah, so it's there's many forms and depths of it, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I love that. The word that came to mind when you were speaking was like it's omnipresence, like it's just being like present in so many ways, so that you're the person they think of when they're thinking about working with you. And uh you mentioned before like the video and socials piece, but overall, like what are so you work with women 40 plus. People listening to this podcast like vary, but there's a lot of people in the like a millennial gen X camp. And when I think about us, because I'm millennial, I often get confused, but I am millennial. Like I always think we're kind of in this interesting spot where we didn't grow up with the internet. The internet came in, then socials came in. It's so it's always so weird when you talk about this because I'm like, I don't want to sound like that old, like it makes you sound older, but ultimately you've gone through all those stages, and it means that we know how to do like traditional comms so well, but we've had to really learn how to be visible online in different ways. And so, what do you find are the biggest challenges for your women who are, yeah, 40 plus?

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yes. Uh, there are many challenges, some bigger than others. Uh, I think, like you just said, one of the major ones is that we haven't grown up with social media. So we find we're still a bit awkward with it in that we love it, but we're not 100% comfortable with it. Yeah. We still like to be the voyeurs rather than the people that are on the soapboxes or, you know, having the spotlight on them. I think also, as a mum who's got 16-year-old kids, we're trying to tell our kids that social media too much of social media is not great as well. So we have conflicting ideas in our head. It's okay for business, but we don't want you on it too much, you know. There's that that comes to mind. The other huge one is that we are just juggling so much in life. Yes, that it is, it is difficult to devote the time and and the energy to it. That is probably one of the biggest ones. And we're a little bit, we like to be more intentional about things as well. So I think just jumping on and smashing something out quickly. Um, I know with a lot of the women I work with, they overthink their socials. Yeah. So a lot of the time it's just trying to get them to spend less than an hour on a post because they just they're so thoughtful and they want it to be right and to tick all the boxes when sometimes it's just about showing up, yeah? Yes. Um, so that's that's an issue. I'm sure there's more as well in my head.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah. No, I hear you on that. And I want to like pick into the time piece because it's just like it's such an interesting thing that of course in 2026 we're gonna be talking about visibility and time in the same sentence. What are the quick wins there? Like, how do you navigate those conversations around time? And I know for you as well, you're in that season of life, like teenage kids, aging parents, like the responsibilities are big and vast. And you also have like you have so much visibility, you're so good at it, you're so consistent, you're so present. Like, what are just some of the hacks that you're using? And how do you just kind of cut through the bullshit to actually make it happen?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah. So just to speak about consistency for a second, one thing is telling my clients that consistency doesn't mean showing up four times every week. Yeah. It just means showing up regularly and not having those long breaks. Um, I had a period where I outsourced my socials for three years and I've never been as consistent in my life. Yes. I haven't been as consistent before then and I haven't been as consistent since then. But I regularly show up. Some weeks now it's three or four times a week. Sometimes, if I'm really busy, it's twice a week. Um, and I'm talking sort of Instagram here, that's my main platform. And I give myself that grace. Uh, and also, you know, because as you just said, when I talk to people, they're like, oh, you know, you're doing so much, you're so busy. So even if you're kicking yourself a little bit because, oh my gosh, I only posted twice this week, well, that's still consistent. You're still showing up every week. So give yourself that grace. So I tell them just not to be so hard about because sometimes they're like, I'm gonna show up five times a week, and I'm like, that's not a good place to be. So that's one thing. Uh, the other is if I'm working with someone who is fairly new to social media, and some of my women are, they're still in those first early years of business where they've been shying away from it. They have to remember that it's going to get easier. So it's not so much a hack, but it's maybe a mindset hack. It may take an hour for a post in the beginning, but if you consistently do the work, it is going to get so much easier. Yes. Um, and you get to the point where you you do trust yourself more, your content comes quicker, you've got your templates on the ready, you've got your content bank there to feed into quickly. So it does get easier. Um, and of course, there is there is AI. And I talk about using AI with them a lot from a um a brain-dumping perspective, like get your just dump your ideas into it and get it to feed something back to you that you can then quickly refine. Or obviously spending a a good chunk of time in there to get your content pillars, your ideas, like your results, what you can speak to, your messaging, really utilize that. But I think still it takes them, it can often take some time to find the system that works for you. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

And so you essentially teach though a visibility system, right? And that's what I think works well for your clients. Like you're very much like the way that you're going to do this is through a system.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And do you find when your clients come to you they don't have that system in place at all? And that's the thing that can really help them?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah, I sort of get two types of clients. One is I get the ones that, yeah, they have no system at all. So we sort of build that into it for them, and they're they've they come in and they're quite scattered because they don't have those systems, but they're all really good at what they do, right? So they just need the systems and the strategies to um to build into their week so that they can show up in a better way for themselves and for their clients. And then I will also have women who have been in business for longer and they do have systems, but the systems aren't necessarily working from them in the sense of they might be sharing a lot of content and showing up, but not in a way that is backing their expertise enough and inviting people in to work with them. So it's about yes, just changing their messaging a little bit and also encouraging them to sell in a in a way that has integrity. And I find that is I know selling's not visibility, but that's a big part of what I work with the women on because it's one thing to be visible, but if you're not actually you're the master of this, right? If you're not actually inviting people in so you can serve them and work with them, your visibility isn't getting you anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yes. Okay, so off the back of that, what's like one visibility power move that you're seeing is really working for your people right now?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, I think the ones that are getting traction are the ones that are building deeper relationships either within the platform, or the other thing I see that's really working is making sure they're off the platform and also as much as possible trying to be in the room with people. Yes. So one of my clients who is exceptional on social media and showing up and reels and videos, she held her first ever in-person workshop last month with almost 100 women in the room, and she sold off the back of that. So that was amazing for her, and you know, she was so nervous, but um she did brilliantly, and of course now she's like, right, I'm gonna do that every year now. And and we know that that you know it's it's very much about connection. Uh I don't know if that's particularly for women 40 plus, but I think that's particularly something we can be very good at because of that life experience and maturity and knowing our people. So I think you know, if you can get in the room with people and create that depth to your visibility, you've got much more chance of converting.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I love that because when I hear you speak to that, it's the way I think about it is it's like attention is your feed. Attention is, you know, really what you're putting out there, you're competing with all these other people. But actually, when it comes to the sale, it is, as you said, that connection, whether that connection is on the platform. So DM conversations, nurturing people repeatedly there, or in-person connection, building the opportunity to really have the those one-to-one conversations. And especially, you know, if you're selling high-ticket, like you're selling a mastermind, people spend so much time in lead generation and front-end attraction. And, you know, sometimes I want to say, like, this gets to be so much easier if you just spend a little bit more time in that, like, if we're looking at it as a funnel, in that bottom of funnel phase, like actually really seeing someone in front of them, like recognizing them, having those one-to-one conversations, as you say, like really seeing them in their unique challenges. And as you were speaking, it got me thinking as well about how I'm like, I wonder whether, you know, millennial and gen X women, it's like whether we also want to be seen more in our unique bespoke challenges. And I don't even know, as I'm saying that, why that would be, but I feel like there's an element of actually I do know it's because you're in this season where we're doing so much for everyone else. It's like, see me, see me in what I need.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah, I think so. Um, and if I can just go back to that um depth of connection for a second, a lot of the women I work with, they are they are sharing a lot of content, but because of that time pour um season of their life, they're not taking the time out to have the conversations behind the scene, whether it's in the DMs or getting into rooms. And they they do come to me and they say, Why is it even worth doing this work? You know, and and I believe that right now, I don't know if you're experiencing this, but I feel like there is such a drop-off in engagement on social media. And I'm saying that to them. I'm like, look, even from my perspective, it's it's not there. But as long as you know you're showing up, you're sharing yourself, you're being authentic, you've got your messaging right, you have to trust that people are still seeing you and listening to you. But you also then, yeah, as we were just saying, you have to go deeper behind the scenes and and really solidify that connection with them.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Totally. I mean, you know, in 2026, like the strategies are shifting so much. It's like, you know, paid is no longer optional, right? When it comes to getting in front of the right people and as you say, actually being in the sales process with people because I can't remember what the exact percentage is at the moment, but the percentage across attention has dropped. Like I think it's something like 8% in the last 12 months, which is wild. So, yes, totally agree on that. What do you think then? Like, if they are saying, is this worth my time? Like, where are they spending time that really isn't like they should just cut it? Like, where, where is that? You know, you said before, sometimes it's an hour to write a post. Like, is it in the practical? Is it in the overthinking?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Uh I mean, probably a bit of all of the above. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think setting some real boundaries around their time. Uh, I mean, one of the things, even though my main areas where I work with my clients is around personal branding and visibility, we also work with them on their systems because they haven't uh not everyone, but some of them haven't got great systems in the background. So they're just fighting to still do everything themselves. Yes. Um, and look, some of the women at the level I'm working with, they also are probably in that slightly more um that area where they they do still worry a lot about the money coming in. Yes. Um, so it's really hard to get them to back themselves and to invest in themselves. So we do a lot of work there as well. So um, you know, you're spending all this time like just working on your admin and you know, getting stuff sorted in the background across all these different spreadsheets and things. Like, let's just get you into an easier system so that you can spend time on things that matter. Um, so also, like you just said, like just not spending just hours on your posts, but actually developing the strategies, the sales strategies that are inviting people in. They are very good at sharing helpful content and sharing content, but there is a little bit of resistance as well, I find, around around selling themselves. And I think again, that's that's a generational thing where we were just brought up to be really nice, really helpful, and I am like that myself. I think we all are. And I could say even generally that women are like that, right? We we just want to be helpful. So, you know, there's often a bit of friction, not with everyone, but with some of them that, you know, that that selling just still feels awkward. And it's like you have to do this, not just for yourself, but for your clients. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Well, it I I just it's you know, I just know that to be true. And I think that the reason why your approach works so well and the reason why you've got this successful mastermind is because you're speaking to a very specific niche with a very specific problem. And I think the fact that you blend personal brand with systems as almost like this is the way you make this easier, is often the thing that helps them so much because it's like, what's the problem? Oh, I'm having to put myself out there. What's actually the problem? I have no time for this. You know, the fact that you've got systems to do that, it's like the leverage point of like, no, no, no, we can systemize this and it's just gonna save you so much time and actually get you out there.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yeah. And you would know that like visibility without with even if you're showing up in a great way, you can't retain that if you don't have the ease and the simplicity behind it. Like we just run out of energy and time.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

It's you know, Niv and I were talking about this the other day, where we were saying content in particular is really one of the biggest business systems for a personal brand business that there is. And I think the reason why people don't nail consistency of content is simply because they haven't recognized that it's one of the biggest business systems there are. I think that's one of the only reasons. And if you recognize that it is one of the biggest business systems there are, then you're gonna treat it with the reverence, the time, the energy to nail that system that it needs. Yeah. You're gonna think about it in a different way, and you're gonna go, oh, now this is easy. Yeah because it's just that big system that had needs a lot of like upfront care to then take care of itself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

And I know you often speak to just going hard on one platform. Yeah. Um, and I think again, a lot of the women I work with, they don't outsource a lot yet. Yes. Um, so you have to do that, and they're still, I think, trying to do too much across the board. Um, and even if they are doing, you know, one platform, but then also newsletters or something else, again, just just showing them the systems where that can all blend into one. They're not separate, like you were just saying. But I think they can often hold that belief that it all takes too much time and everything is its own little content system, and no, it's not. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Okay, so you run a mastermind. Thanks to you. Let's be clear there. You taught me how. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

What what do you love about that model? Oh, um I think when I think about that, there are three reasons I love it. One is from the coach perspective, one is from the client perspective, and then there's a personal perspective. The coach perspective is that I get to there's just so much depth in a mastermind model. Uh, so I get to work very deeply with my clients. Um, I'm gonna try not to cry here because for so many years I wanted to coach as I alongside my photography. And it just um, you know, it wasn't until I joined your mastermind and you showed me, showed me the way um that I was able to start doing that. And it's just um it's just that realization that, you know, I I managed to do it and I'm doing it, and I'm I'm coaching these women with that depth that I always wanted to and seeing the impact. It's life-changing, Ellie. So thank you. Okay, tears away. But yeah, so it's that depth for me, but also for them, because it's it's you know, I do a six-month rolling mastermind. So even if they stay in for six months, that's a good deal of time to work with someone. Some of them stay in, so you really get that depth where you do see that impact. Um, also from the client perspective, um, as I said, they get that depth in their business, but they get that community as well. So um they don't feel alone because even though it seems silly that we might still feel alone, a lot of people still feel alone in business. Um, they have someone to talk to and to understand that they're they're on the same journey, same challenges, maybe different stage of that journey, but they're in front or behind each other and learning from each other or inspiring each other. And even just last week we had one of our group calls and um we were talking to I was having a conversation with one of my mastermind women about the fact that um she's interested in mentoring someone, and we were talking about getting it started there, and then one of the other women on the call was like, I've got a contact for you, and it was like the perfect contact. So, you know, there's that beauty as well. But from the personal perspective, um this is just a really honest my life. Um, I have been a photographer for 23 years now, and it still lights me up. Um, it's still one of my happy places, but I'm 52 and your body changes and you need more rest in between. And it is extremely labor-intensive. You give so much in every session, and um, you know, I photographed a full day event yesterday, and it was you know, one of my favorite clients to ever photograph, but I was fried at the end of the day, and you know, it always takes it out of you. But 10, 15, 20 years ago, I wasn't that fried. So um I love that this model allows me to still work with my ideal client in a really deep way, um, alongside that one-to-one service-based business model without feeling like as I get older, I have to maintain that energy because I think for women in that 40 plus bracket, and if not 40 plus, it's coming at 50 plus. And I'm I'm a fit, I I think I'm actually quite a very fit 52-year-old. You definitely are. You just your body only has so many reserves, and yes, we just need to rest and reset in between a lot more than what we're used to. So it's really allowed me to continue doing what I love, but with the master mind alongside it, which for me it was um as much a um uh continuing to do the work I love as it was a future planning thing, which I think we need to have more open, honest conversations. About that as women in business as well. Because we're still sitting here in our 40s and 50s making our business work. But we need to also be thinking about well, where am I going to be 10 years from now? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I so agree with you. It's one of the things I love about a mastermind model. So I think a lot about like the different types of businesses. And, you know, if we're coaches, consultants, or mentors running masterminds, we're ultimately choosing to run a business model that is a lifestyle business in that, you know, we're not building a product where we're like, hey, I'm willing to trade off five to 10 years of my life to then sell this baby and make multiple millions. We're going, I'm running a business where I want this business to A, be lifestyle conducive and B, be profitable now. And especially as you say, like being in your 50s, you're genuinely thinking about that season of life. What comes next? Are you going to retire? When would you retire? What does that look like? And so, whatever work you're doing, like profitability is really important, right? And so you look at this mastermind model and it just blows my mind every day, like how profitable this model gets to be, both from a revenue and a time perspective. Um, so I love hearing that. But also, and I think, you know, you were gonna get to this as well, what it looks like for clients too, right? Like the fact that it just means that they get to win. Like, have you really because I know that for me anyway, when I was one-to-one, I remember being like, how could it possibly be better to serve my clients in a mastermind? Like, how is that actually possible? And then you start a mastermind and you're like, oh my gosh, so much better. Yeah. Like, what have you found?

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, yeah, I think because you get to work with them on many different levels, and also, I mean, in mine, as as in similar to yours, I have a support coach in there with Talia, my online business manager. So you get to uh bring in that support crew that is really impactful for them as well. Yeah. So you can be the expert but still have your crew and your your wing women in there as experts as well. But yeah, it really they get that real vision of what their business can be like from other women in there and they get to make those changes in their business that's really transformational for them as well. Yes. Yeah. So they can see what's possible.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

And I know what one thing I really love about um the feedback I've gotten from mine is that um they can change or they they can create in six months what would have taken them two years. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So good. You're able to just fast track that time for them.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

Yes, and that's probably one of my drivers in in my mastermind because it it was I was a photographer for 15 years before I was at that burnout phase where I'm like, something's got to change. And this is if even still a few years before, this is pre-COVID, so before I uh launched the mastermind, and that was when I really stepped into my own personal branding and visibility, which was hilarious because I'd been a personal branding photographer for so many years. Always great. Yeah. Um, and that changed everything for me. And I just don't want other women to take 15 years to make those same realizations. We need to be doing that sooner, faster, and particularly again in this season of our life.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

So the last question I'm about to ask you is the visibility strategies that you use to sell your mastermind. And I just feel like we should take a moment to say, like a couple of years ago, you were like, I want to start a mastermind, Ellie. I want to do this, I want this to be my coaching business, I want to do a great job of this, I want women in this experience. Can you believe that you're here? I mean, I know you can. I can, or so.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

It's also a pinch me moment. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Because you do spend a lot of time in business looking at other women like yourself that you admire and are inspired by. But I think we always have that little inner voice that's like, you it's just not you. You haven't got all the boxes ticked, or that's worked for her, but it's not going to work for you. And it's the stories we're brought up with, right? Yes. Absolutely. I I'm not talented enough, I'm not beautiful enough, I'm not thin enough, I haven't had enough experience, I don't know an you know, it just goes on and on. So, and I'm saying that because I'm sure everyone can relate to that, because that's just often the way women can think. But yeah, it's it's all possible, which is what you continually um push on us, not push on us, wrong word, but I mean I mean slightly, slightly much in your beautiful way, when in you know, from inside your mastermind. It's it's you're continually um showing us uh how to build that self-belief, which is, I think in business better than any strategy, any hack, anything else, right? It has to come from that self-belief. And and that is what you showed me most of all, and and taught me to do for myself, to show up with that self-belief that I could be a coach and that I could build a successful mastermind. I mean, everything you said about what I could be, I've basically, you know, it's come true. So I don't know what magic does to your sniffing. But um, yeah, no, it's you said, you know, a couple of years fee, you'll build it, you'll be there. And I think, you know, in terms of visibility, it's it's it's having that future vision for yourself and really backing yourself, but also uh, I'm just gonna keep harping back to, you know, what I learned from you in your mastermind, it was to continually talk about the client you want to serve, continually talking about their problems so they know you understand them, you see them, um, you're the right person for them when they're ready to act. It's showing up as authentically you and just yeah, just really backing yourself and and showing up in all the ways that will connect with them and and sharing your authority. And and you know, that was one of the things for me that I'm sure you remember was quite hard. Totally. If it's not something that you've done much of before, I was very um confident in my in my ability as a photographer, but it was like going back and being green again, yeah. Going into like, okay, now I'm a a a coach who's launching a mastermind. But yes, I did have that self-belief, and that was, you know, um often motivated by you and the way you coached me, and and that's why it's so good to have those coaches in your corner, right? Definitely. I hope that answers the question, but um, I think I went off on a tangent there. But yeah, just really you have to back your authority, and I suppose again, coming back to a lot of the women I work with, they just don't back their expertise enough, and they've got decades of it. They focus on what they don't know rather than what they do know, or they feel like they have to know everything in the room. And I think I'm a perfect example of if I if I waited, I wouldn't have launched my membership, I wouldn't have lost my master launched my mastermind, you know. Yes, I wouldn't have backed myself in so many ways.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah, we need more women who are really willing to back themselves even when they're scared because we're all doing it scared in every season that never goes away. Yep. You photographed me doing a keynote yesterday. I was scared, you know, the second before I went up there, like we're all doing it scared. And I just love that I just got grosped before hearing you speak about the last couple of years. So yeah, thank you for sharing that with me. Thank you for being here. I've loved this conversation so much.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Thank you for everything you've done for me in my business. I love you. You know that.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

I do.