The Be Seen Method For Strategic PR with Sarah Stephens

What if visibility could feel natural instead of performative? In this episode, Aideen sits down with visibility strategist, PR expert, and founder of the Be Seen Method, Sarah Stephens, to explore how entrepreneurs and creatives can become more visible without forcing themselves into exhausting marketing strategies that don’t fit.

Sarah shares her approach to authentic PR, expert positioning, and intuitive visibility, helping clients build sustainable strategies around what genuinely lights them up. Together, they unpack storytelling, media outreach, personal branding, and the power of future casting your visibility so you attract aligned opportunities and clients. This conversation is full of grounded, practical insights for anyone who wants to be seen, heard, and valued while staying true to themselves.

Key Takeaways

 • “just post more” is rarely a sustainable visibility strategy
 • visibility strategies should be built around your natural strengths
 • storytelling creates emotional connection and trust with audiences
 • self-awareness tools like human design can support authentic visibility

Connect with Sarah

LinkedIn: Sarah Stephens

Facebook: Sarah Stephens

Instagram: @sarahstephenspr

If you’re tired of trying to market yourself in ways that feel forced or exhausting, this episode will remind you that visibility works best when it’s rooted in authenticity. 

Subscribe to The Resonate Podcast, share this episode with a friend who’s ready to be seen more fully, and leave a review to help more creatives, entrepreneurs, and leaders discover these conversations.

What would visibility look like if you started to trust your natural strengths?

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Sarah Stevens

Aideen Ni Riada 0:04

Welcome to the Resonate Podcast with Aideen. I'm Aideen Ni Riada and my guest today is Sarah Stephens. Sarah is a visibility strategist, PR expert, and founder of the Be Seen Method, a proven approach that helps entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts to be seen, heard, and paid through authentic strategic PR. Public relations, in case you're wondering, most people would know that. Sarah is known for connecting brands with media through standout storytelling, expert positioning, and visibility that actually converts. I'm so delighted to have you on the show today, Sarah, because we've met in person and I think you're fantastic because your presence is very grounded. I don't think you're all about flaffing. You know, sometimes you think about media and social media and PR, and it's all about the bells and whistles, and you don't seem to be coming from that approach at all. Am I right?

Authentic Visibility Over Hype

Sarah Stephens 1:02

Absolutely. Um, I'm all about being real and authentic and true to who you are, really. Um, so I always encourage people to be visible in a way that aligns with who they are and what they enjoy doing, so that it comes across much less forced and more natural.

Aideen Ni Riada 1:28

Yeah, so important, and then so much more sustainable because we can't keep it up if we're just doing it with kind of a you know, oh, I have to promote myself. This happened to me actually in my first couple of years of uh starting my own business. My first year of starting my own business, I did everything I used to do. It was a bit of image consulting, a bit of nutrition, and um, it was like mixing and matching the different things that I had done before, and I just didn't have the enthusiasm for it that I should have, you know, to promote myself. And when I realized that I wanted to do something that had a music-related tint to it, suddenly I was fired up, and it really made so much sense. Um, I really wanted people to come to my classes, I really wanted them to get the results that I wanted that that I knew that they could get, that they would start to step into their power with their own voice. And it's always been so easy for me to promote that. Whereas when I've tried other to do other things, it felt like hard work.

Sarah Stephens 2:35

Yeah, it lights you up, and that's the key. It's finding the things that light you up and set your soul on fire, and actually doing more of those things. So when I work with clients, quite often they've worked with other experts, maybe the PR experts, visibility experts, who teach them very cookie-cutter methods. So, you know, this this is what worked for me, and this is what I tell everyone to do. Step one, step two, step three, just follow that, and you'll have success. And people

Promoting What Truly Lights You Up

Sarah Stephens 3:12

do those courses and follow those cookie-cutter methods, and they'll all come out with vastly different results, and it's because we're all very different people, and some people will love going live on TikTok every single day for a month, um, and but other people would rather stick pins in their own eyes than actually do that, and that energy comes across. So if you're hating what you're doing, the energy is just not there to give you those results. Whereas if you're jumping out of bed in the morning thinking, oh my god, I can't wait to speak on that stage, or I can't wait to go to that event and see everyone and network. That energy is just there, and that energy will convert and you'll get to those that end goal and that big vision far, far quicker than if you're doing things that you'd rather not do or that you hate or don't enjoy, and it's finding those things that light you up, and that's what I'm very good at doing for with clients. Why are you so good at that, Sarah? Well, funnily, funny you should ask me that, AD. Um, well, I've got over 25 years experience, first of all, working with a variety of different businesses from international airlines to global sporting events, hospitality, leisure, um, doing lots of different launch events. Um, so I've got quite a history of experience to draw from um and obviously qualifications as well. But then the other gifts that I've got is a very strong sense of intuition. So I can um I'm quite um uh an empath, so I can feel um when the energy there's an energy shift. Um when I work one-to-one with clients and we do VIP Biscine days, sometimes they're not that self-aware. So when you say to them, Well, do more of what you enjoy visibility-wise, and they go, Oh, well, I don't really like any of it. So then I'll name different activities like going live on TikTok. How would you feel if you did that? Or how would you feel about speaking on stage? And even if they say, Oh, that'd be okay, okay, I can feel the energy shift so I can see quite clearly whether they're liking it or they're not liking it. Um, I also use my gifts when I ask them to explain to me what that big vision is that they want for the future. What do you want to get to eventually? Because the other mistake that people make with, for instance, their PR is that PR, you're almost future casting. So with PR, you're doing your PR to bring in the ideal

Why Cookie Cutter Tactics Fail

Sarah Stephens 6:15

client you're working with in the future. You in that future vision you've got, your PR is reaching out and drawing in that future person, but some people again have trouble imagining that future vision and who it is they're working with. So I can ask quite a lot of questions and really draw that out of them. Um, and sometimes I see what they're not telling me as well, so I can ask them questions that maybe exist, the answers exist in their subconscious and they're not fully aware. So I use a lot of intuitive gifts to help me to make sure that I craft the math the method that suits them.

Aideen Ni Riada 7:01

That's so amazing because you're really you're tuning into their authentic self and helping them to to to feel it within themselves as well, I think, because if you can say, Oh, you started to look a little bit excited about that one, and then they'll go, Oh yeah, maybe, maybe it's there, right? But the reassurance of having someone else see it, yeah, is really, really beautiful. And I know people think that you have to have self-belief and self-confidence, but actually a lot of self-belief and self-confidence comes from one other person believing in you and seeing something in you, and when you get that reassurance that, yeah, God, I really do. I love that thing. I love, you know, I love talking about this aspect of my business, I love this particular service that I do. I wouldn't mind getting up on a stage and talking about that piece, right? Um, but sometimes others don't see that. A lot of people don't. I mean, I I definitely know that a lot of us in our in our families, um, they don't really see our potential most of the time. Like a lot of our friends mightn't even see that, and because they have a they've an idea of who you are based on who you used to be. Whereas you're looking at not who you are now, but who you're becoming.

Sarah Stephens 8:24

Yeah, exactly. Exactly that. And sometimes as well, when I sit down with clients, they say, Oh, this is what I want for the future, and they describe a future to me, and then they say, Oh, but I've already mapped out my ideal client and this and that and the other. Look, Sarah, and and sometimes that future vision that they've described to me doesn't quite match up to the ideal client work that they've already done. Um, so for instance, I had one client who said um, in my ideal vision in the future, I'm living somewhere hot and tropical, I'm by a beach, and um I'm having the you know quality life that I don't have because I'm always hustling at the moment, and I have a much much better quality of life. And her ideal client, she said, was she was going to do a low-ticket membership. And I said, Well, the lifestyle you just described to me, you'd need a hell of a lot of people in a low-ticket membership to fund this lifestyle, and what I could see that she didn't even wasn't even aware of herself was because she was saying, Oh, I don't want to do one-to-one clients anymore. And in in in the back of her mind, I could see her working not with lots of one-to-one clients, but just very high-end one-to-one clients. So I said, Are you sure you don't want to do one-to-one? Because I can see you going on private jets out to people's yachts, where you're doing one-to-one work with them, maybe for a two-week period, and then you're coming away, or you're going to their villa, and it's very, very high level one-to-one, but maybe you only have to do three or four clients like that a year, and then you also have your membership. And she just said, Oh my god, you're absolutely right. And she'd already had a friend of a friend who had a connection to this rock band, and the musician

Intuition And Future Casting Your PR

Sarah Stephens 10:45

um needed her help. So she said, I was I'm already doing some um like pro bono work for a friend with this musician and this rock band, and I said, Well, that's brilliant. You can get him to do your testimonial saying how great you are, and you can use that to fuel getting more people like him. And she was like, Oh my god, yes. And it had all just kind of nicely aligned, and that's the kind of thing that I can see that maybe other people would have just gone, Oh, right, okay, you're doing a low-ticket, let's run with that then. Um, I can kind of realign it to the way it's meant to be. Um and I had another um client who said, I've done all the courses for what I want to do. Um, I go to lots of networking groups and rooms, and it is very male-dominated. She said, But I don't have an issue with that, I'm quite outspoken, I like to think I'm a confident woman. She said, but when people stand up and talk within the the rooms that I'm in, I feel like I don't want to share, I don't feel confident, I don't feel proud of what I'm doing. Um, and I drilled down to the root cause of that with her just by questioning her and having a chat and finding out what she used to do before she moved into this new industry. And what she used to do, she was a carer and she um cared for people and she looked after people, and what we discovered is that is a core belief of hers that she wants to feel like she's helping people, and I said, and that's why you're not feeling confident in those rooms because everyone's just bragging about the money they're making and the deals they're doing, and you need to, whilst you're doing really well, you don't feel you want to brag about it because what you do you want to try and help other people, so she we basically pivoted her business slightly, so it was checking the legacy box for her, and so it was in if she's in the property industry, so now she's specialising in property that's um adapted to special needs, and um, and looking at that and using her carer background to be the expert in adapting property for additional needs and helping people to retrofit property and all of that, and now she lights up and she goes into the rooms and she stands up really proudly and says what she does because it aligns with who she is and her soul and her path, and that's what I can also see what someone is.

Aideen Ni Riada 13:50

It aligns with her soul and with her path, it's a beautiful thing, and I think a lot of people in if we're trying to earn money or if we feel in any way um stressed, we're looking for an answer, but we don't tend to go to what's my soul's path first.

Sarah Stephens 14:11

What's my soul's purpose in life?

Aideen Ni Riada 14:13

And then we'll go, how do I make money fast? And then we look to others, we kind of go, okay, what are they doing to earn money? Now, this was it's interesting for me because I've you know, when I set up my business after that one year of doing all the things I didn't really care for, um, and I started to work for myself, I started to realize uh there's nobody else can do this thing that I do, right? It was like a completely unique offering. Um, nobody else was really teaching

Rebuilding Offers To Match Lifestyle

Aideen Ni Riada 14:40

adults singing for fun in my area. It was only singing teachers that taught either classical music or the grades, mainly to children, and I was given performance opportunities. So it was interesting that when you start to uh acknowledge your gifts and your kind of what you're passionate about, which I would say is your soul energy, it creates a business that's unique, and that's a client of yours who was saying I retrofit properties for um for people with with special needs. Like that sounds really unique as well. It's almost like because it's you, it's going to be special.

Sarah Stephens 15:22

Yeah, it just needs to align with who you are, and I think if you're like you say, if you're passionate about something and it's utilising your unique gifts, that will give you more confidence because it's something that you know you're good at, and therefore you're more inclined to be enthusiastic about it because you enjoy it, you're good at it, and that enthusiasm just translates into the best energy. Um, and I think what really helped me actually was uh looking at my human design as well to find out a little bit more about who I am.

Aideen Ni Riada 16:04

So, just for those people who don't know about human design, do you want to explain how a little bit about it?

Sarah Stephens 16:10

Yeah, yeah, human design is like a a step on really from astrology and things like that. So um I'm not a human design like practitioner kind of um I just have a friend who does human design and she's amazing. Um, and I just happened to go to an event that she was at and she was talking about human design, um, and it's all were calculated by the time you were born, the day you were born, just like astrology is, um, but it has other scientific variables in it in the calculation. And um what did you find out about yourself, Sarah? In yours, yeah. So mine, I'm um and once when she explained the different types of personality, um, it was obvious straight away what I what I am overall. Um, because I'm a typical uh manifesting generator, so um I'm a bit of a workaholic if I allow myself to be. Um I get energized by work, I get very enthusiastic by work by work that I enjoy. Um I have a million ideas every minute that I now have learnt to write down in the notes on my phone. So if anyone needs a business idea and you're struggling for creativity, I'm your woman. I've probably got a massive list that I can reel off at any time and give you ideas. Um so and manifesting generators like to have more than one project project at once. Um, they're very good at thinking and having a million ideas and a million businesses. So if you meet anyone who has more than one business, the likelihood is they're probably a manifesting generator. Um and yes, so manifesting generator just means that they can manifest ideas themselves and come up with the idea and then run with it and action it as well. Um, and then there's a personality that the most common personalities are either manifesting generators or generators, and a generator is someone who, when given a job or a task, or an idea, they can then run with it and deliver it and very efficient and all of that, um, but they just don't come up with all the ideas as easily as uh bonkers as me. Um so yes, that's my manifesting generator, but then um when they work out your human design chart, it's like really complex with loads of different gates and lines and channels and things like that, and numbers, and and I don't fully understand it. So if you're listening to this and you're a human design expert, please forgive me because um I'm clearly not describing this properly. Um, but I'll I'll give give AD in the details of my friend, and you can have her on talking about it and telling you the actual facts and what things are called. Absolutely. But there's like gene keys and things like that, and um lots of things I don't understand, but apparently it's possible to see all different types of your personality in there, um, what you're good at. There's different gates that can be open or closed that then um infer certain characteristics in your personality. So I have a very open head um in my chart, which means I have lots and lots of ideas, um, and I absorb ideas all the time. Um and I then I also have the psychic area that's completely open, so my intuition is very good, um I'm an empath, and that's all in my chart as well. Um, and then there's certain things like um I'm a manifesting generator, but I'm what's called a four-six personality, um, and I've been told that four sixes are quite rare, but four sixes are natural networkers, so they can walk into a room of people and quite naturally chat to strangers they've never met before and have conversations with people, and it's something they can do quite naturally, and and and I'm a four-six, um, so I get most of my business from networking.

Aideen Ni Riada 20:50

And they're great for someone in PR to be able to network well and talk to anyone in the room.

Sarah Stephens 20:55

Yes, and there's all sorts of different things I was like, oh, that's why I'm like that. Um, and there's things like um one of my numbers says that I'm a storyteller and that um I'm um like a born oracle, so I should talk and tell stories um and teach people how to do what I do. So I've got like a teacher gene. Um and then the when she did a special session at uh at this networking event that I was I went to, um, my friend, and she said, Oh, I'll I'll tell everyone what their sole purpose is. She said these are the numbers that will give you your sole purpose. And I said, Oh, what am what's mine? And she said, Oh, can't remember what yours is. I'll find out later and I'll voice note you. And oh my god. She the voice note that she said, I'll see if I can find it on my phone to read out to you. Because I was just it just gave me goosebumps, and it actually and adjust. Up the Global Visibility Club, and it basically is the Global

Pivoting Into Purpose Led Positioning

Sarah Stephens 22:05

Global Visibility Club, which is why I think it lacks the case.

Aideen Ni Riada 22:10

That's great because I wanted to ask you about the Global Visibility Club. In case people are interested in how to work with you, um, and if it's aligned with your essence and your gifts, yeah, how much more powerful is that going to be? Um, so that's exciting.

Sarah Stephens 22:28

Yeah, so here we go, I found it. So my soul's purpose is um that I have the gift of orientation, which means I have the ability to see an idea and know how to make it work in the real world. I can align things perfectly to the way they are meant to work. I experience divine logic with a heightened sense of awareness that is linked to the divine feminine.

Aideen Ni Riada 22:59

Awesome. I want to be you now. I'm just kidding. I don't need to be you, I just need to know you, Sarah, so that I get the access.

Sarah Stephens 23:10

So do you know what I mean?

Aideen Ni Riada 23:11

Because we need a little bit of everybody in the world. Yeah. So here's an interesting story for everybody because when I first met you, it was at a workshop held by Danielle Serpico, and she made us do an exercise where you had to imagine someone standing in front of you who really believed in you, right? So I wasn't just I hadn't even met you, Sarah. I think I'd said hello. And I sat, I stood up, we were standing, and I tried to imagine, okay, who's going to stand in front of me? It could be my husband. Like, you know, you're trying to, you're thinking it'll be someone you know. And lo and behold, someone quite petite with curly brown hair is standing in front of me. And I was like, this is weird because the person and the energy of the person in front of me feels like the lady I just met a few minutes ago. And we were to stand there and kind of allow that that energy to support us and say things to us about how good we are, right? And I was receiving things like um, there's power in my presence, and you know, just some really beautiful phrases, and um, I kind of came away from that going, I wonder what Sarah does, because if she helps, you know, in a in a way that I need help, right? Which you know, then I would be, then she obviously could be somebody I need to meet. So it was almost like a little intuitive nudge or a little vision. And when we spoke at our first um meeting, you were saying the things to me that I was already thinking, um, which I think I needed because also when I have an idea, I I'm a generator, so I have to respond to things. I don't coming up with an idea on my own doesn't work. I have to wait until I see it in my external circumstances that there's a need for this idea. But when I spoke to you and you reaffirmed this would be great, this would be great, this would be great. That's my feedback then to go now. I could move forward. Um, so it was really amazing to work with you. Um, you have an amazing grounded like that this idea that you can orient people in the real world to create something that I can feel from you. And it's something that drew me to you. Um, and I'm a dreamer, I'm one that that feels all of the the dreams and the energy, but I might have difficulty manifesting it in real life because I need the support of more grounded folk like yourself. So delighted that we know each other, and I'm very happy to introduce you to my listeners today. Um, would you say that PR is creative?

Sarah Stephens 25:51

Yes, it is absolutely creative, and it's thinking about how you can tell a story, really, is what it is, and that's why it made me smile when I I saw that I had also had a storytelling gene that I'm meant to tell stories, because that ultimately is what PR is about. You take the client's story and you make it so that the media want to listen to that story and repeat that story, and that's all it is. It's storytelling, but done in a way that helps people to sell their products, their businesses, their services to

Human Design For Self Awareness

Sarah Stephens 26:35

get more awareness, maybe around a particular cause or charity or whatever, but ultimately it's storytelling.

Aideen Ni Riada 26:46

So, what do you say? Well, how do you find someone's story? Because you talked there a bit about how you can see where someone is going, but the story must go deeper than just what they want next. It's obviously to do with their past as well. So, how do you go about helping people with that?

Sarah Stephens 27:03

I I actually, as part of my BC method, um I have a story mapping exercise, so I can take clients through um this exercise, and it's almost like a brainstorm mind map type thing with all the different sub subcategories of their life in little bubbles, and then you can just brainstorm all the things that have happened to them in their lives, and it might be that you do this exercise and you you literally brainstorm everything, not because you you're happy to share everything, you might not be happy to share everything, and that's fine, but if you brainstorm all the ideas, even things that uh because when I work with people, they either come to me, um, and when I say what what stories have we got, you know, what they either say, Oh, I'm really boring, I am, I have no interest in stories at all. There's nothing interesting about me. And the reason they say that is because they are living their life and they've lived their stories. So to them, it's normal and it's boring, but to someone else, it probably isn't, or even if they think their story is quite ordinary, that story could help their ideal client to connect with them and resonate and go, Oh yeah, do you know what she's just like me? I that happened to me, or that's how I think, or you know, that's the opinion I have. So it could help them resonate with different people as well. So the the story mapping exercise that I do looks at things like child your childhood, um your schooling, um, your education, um, your travel, um, where have you been? What have you done? Have you got any interesting stories from travelling? Um, where have you lived, your family, your health? Um you know, pets. There could be lots and lots of different little stories. And not all of them might um align perfectly with your business, not all of them you might want to share, um, not all of them might be suitable for press and strong enough from press and media, but actually they might work for social media because they might help that target audience to connect with you, to share a hobby or an interest or whatever. Um, and those people that say that they're boring and they have no interest in stories, I usually find at least three that are interesting within like the first 15 minutes. Um, and then the other type of person that I work with is people who come to me because they've got they're planning to launch a book or something because they have a really huge story. So um, like my really huge story is child loss and life after child loss. Um, so I'm a mum of three, and sadly I lost um my first two children. So that's like a massive story. So sometimes people come to me with a massive story and they say, Well, I've got this, I've only got one story, it's this one. And I go, No, you've not, you've got loads of other stories, let's find the other stories. So then we do the mind mapping exercise and they unearth loads of other stories that they can also share. Um, because also if you've got a book big book launch planned for say next year around your your what you perceive to be your big story, well you don't want to go out to media with it now because you want to wait for your book to launch so that it's fresh news. Um in which case then you go out initially with other stories and then you save that big story for when that the book that's connected to it is out. So it's strategic as well, the way that you plan your stories.

Aideen Ni Riada 31:24

Very good. Strategy is not my strong suit, so this is good to hear. Um, I we're coming close to the end of our time together, and it's been absolutely fascinating. I didn't know I was going to be talking to you about your human design. That was really interesting, though, really fascinating. Um, and I I actually have a little bit of an interest in human design as well myself, and it has been a help to me, so I can also um it recommend recommend it. If you're

PR As Storytelling And Story Mapping

Aideen Ni Riada 31:55

ready to kind of feel reassured about who you are, it will point you to those things that are the true things about you and help you understand that that's really good to lean into. Like you don't have to find something new to be good at, like what you're already good at is plenty, yeah. Um, and it's small tweaks go a long way, as you know, Sarah.

Sarah Stephens 32:19

Yeah, absolutely, they really do. Um, and it's I think it helps as well to get more self-awareness so you're more aware of the things you enjoy doing, things like light you up, the things you're good at. And like for me, I've I've found it now. I'm doing the exact things that light me up, um, and as a as I like to say, set my soul on fire. Um, and it's just lovely when you find that that thing that you love.

Aideen Ni Riada 32:55

It sure is. Um, one of the reasons I went to you was because I wanted to start performing more and singing more, because of course my my business has been based on finding your voice, and uh a lot of it has been about singing or helping people connect more deeply to themselves through sound like mantra, but I hadn't been performing to the level that I wanted to, and my latest news, uh Sarah, is that I've been invited to audition to um with for the Traverse City Philharmonic Orchestra. They're looking for vocalists that might be um local but wanting to contribute to the programming for um orchestral work. So very exciting to be preparing for something that's a bit out of my depth and fun, and it's those things I think we if we neglect them, like so. Even if I didn't get in, right? If we neglect taking these opportunities that we are fired up by, um, the energy in our lives starts to feel lower. Yeah, and your reason for living isn't as strong. Like, I have to be doing something with singing in my own life. I can't focus just on my own business, I can't focus on just in helping others because this is one of my passions, and um, you've been hugely encouraging to me, and I wanted to tell you that and tell all my listeners so by the time this airs, I'll probably have already done the audition, but I'm quite terrified now and got in.

Sarah Stephens 34:30

So I want you to visualize now you're singing with the orchestra, visualise it, yeah, visualize your partner going to watch you, um, visualize your friends in the audience, the people who come to your singing classes and groups and things like that, assist coming

Visualization Courage And Closing

Sarah Stephens 34:55

to hear you sing with the the orchestra and start visualising that seriously, and it and and how that feels, focusing on how it feels to be singing with the orchestra, and then the energy alignment will just work. Yes, it's exciting.

Aideen Ni Riada 35:17

Um, yeah, and you know it's okay to feel a little bit afraid of these big leaps that we take, um, and we have to have good friends like Sarah to give us a little encouragement, and anything is possible with the right support and a little bit of self-belief. So if you are listening and you need a little bit of support or a little bit of self-belief, Sarah Stevens is the girl to go to. Um, I should say woman, but um, you are so amazing, Sarah, and I'm really grateful that you came on the show today. So try and find Sarah. She will be putting the website and some of the details. I'm glad to connect with Sarah in the show notes. I'm also going to look for the name of your human design expert friend so that if you're listening, yeah, we'll we'll put some of that into the show notes for everybody. So thanks you all for listening. We look forward to hearing what you think of the episode. Please get in touch, and that's it from for today for the Resonate Podcast with Aidan. Thank you, Sarah. Brilliant.

Sarah Stephens 36:20

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Bye, everyone.