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Have you ever felt the pull to speak up about something you deeply believe in, but also the paralyzing fear of what might happen if you do?
As entrepreneurs, we’re often told to “stay in our lane,” keep things professional, and avoid getting too personal. But what happens when your values feel too important to ignore? What if the silence starts to cost you more than your voice ever could?
Your Lane Might Be Bigger Than You Think
For many entrepreneurs, staying focused on expertise feels safe. Marketing tactics, industry insights, professional development. And that approach absolutely works. But over time, many of us realize our lane was never just our niche. It’s our values, our mission, the deeper why behind our work.
Your lane might be about empowering women, feeding communities, believing in connection, or prioritizing care over comfort. When someone tells you to “stay in your lane,” it’s worth asking: what is my lane, really? And who gets to define it?
The Honest Trade-Offs
Let’s be real about what speaking up actually looks like. The benefits are clear: you deepen connection with people who share your values, create space for more meaningful conversations, build personal integrity without compartmentalizing who you are from what you do, and allow your business to reflect your full self.
But the risks are equally real. You might lose followers or customers. You could be misunderstood. There’s the possibility of facing backlash and intense criticism. Your team members might hold different views. And there’s the emotional toll of navigating people’s projections and expectations.
The question becomes: what breaks your heart deeply enough that staying silent costs you more than speaking up?
There’s a Spectrum of How to Show Up
Here’s what we don’t talk about enough: there’s a wide spectrum between silence and megaphone activism.
Covert approaches are woven into what you do. Who you choose to interview or platform. The language you use. The brands you partner with or decline. The causes you donate to quietly. The way you treat people and run your business. Whose voices you amplify.
These approaches are powerful and often safer while still letting you stand for what you believe in.
Overt approaches are more direct. Clear statements about issues or beliefs. Using your platform to educate or activate. Speaking up in real-time on current events.
Neither is more “right.” It depends on your capacity, what feels authentic versus performative, and your current season. And you can move along this spectrum as you grow and learn.
The Pressure to Perform (And Why It Backfalls)
Here’s the truth: it’s not helpful to expect every person with a platform to comment on every single world event. When someone is pressured into speaking, that’s where performative activism lives. You can feel it. It’s not genuine.
People have legitimate reasons for staying quiet: safety concerns, bandwidth, lack of expertise, circumstances you can’t see from the outside, varying risk tolerances. Both speaking up and staying quiet can be valid choices.
The wisdom is in discerning what’s truly yours to carry versus what’s just noise or external pressure. What breaks your heart so deeply that staying silent costs you more than speaking up? That’s your compass.
Activism Isn’t Just Online
Online activism is just one place to show up. Real-world action matters: volunteering, showing up in your community, direct service, using your profits to support causes you believe in.
The internet can make us feel overwhelmed in seconds. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is log off and show up in person.
Protecting your nervous system is part of sustainable activism. Find a rhythm that lets you stay engaged without burning out. The causes you care about need you for the long haul.
The Reality of Public Criticism
If you’re considering speaking up more publicly, understand what you might face. Public criticism carries real emotional weight. But here’s a powerful reframe: the only person who can truly cancel you is you, if you decide to stop showing up.
Think about how many people have been “canceled” who still have careers and are still creating meaningful work. Only you can take yourself out of the game.
If fear is paralyzing you, consider doing inner work to separate who you are from your online identity. Where do you as a person start and stop, and where does the brand begin? The more honest you get about that separation, the more boldly you can step out.
Build Bridges, Not Walls
If we truly want people to change, calling someone in works better than calling them out. Think about it: when you’re getting attacked and start to feel guilt and shame, it creates a paralyzing position where you don’t want to say anything because you might say the wrong thing. But when someone calls you in with grace? You feel so much more confident saying, “I got this wrong. This was not my intent, but this is what happened. I’m sorry. Here’s what I can do to fix it.”
Growing through dialogue instead of shame, modeling curiosity over conflict, being a bridge builder instead of adding division, this is how real change happens. We have enough division and anger out there already.
The world doesn’t need more people tearing each other down. It needs people willing to have hard conversations with compassion.
How can we lead with intention and reflection instead of reactivity? You can build bridges while standing firmly in your truth. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
The Algorithm Trap
It’s dangerously easy to create echo chambers by unfollowing anyone who disagrees. Algorithms are expertly trained to feed us exactly what we already believe to be true, which means we only see what confirms our existing worldview.
This makes it incredibly easy to question how anyone could possibly see things differently. You start to think, “How could anyone believe that?” But the reality is, they’re in their own algorithm feeding them their version of truth.
We’re being dangerously fed content that reinforces our beliefs without ever challenging them. If we don’t consistently and intentionally seek out other sides, opinions, and information, we’ll never understand how divided we’ve become or why.
Stay curious about different perspectives, even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when you don’t agree, try to understand. We are more alike than we are different. Don’t let the internet make you forget that.
Your Path Forward
If you’re wrestling with when or how to speak up, sit with these questions: What issues genuinely break your heart? Not what you think you should care about, but what keeps you up at night? What can’t you stop thinking about? Those are your clues.
How can you speak up in ways that align with your voice, whether covert, overt, or somewhere in between? What’s your comfort level right now, and how might you grow your confidence over time?
Where can you show up beyond the internet? What does advocacy look like in your everyday life? Can you volunteer monthly? Join a local organization? Use your business profits to fund causes? Invite others into that advocacy journey with you, not just to hold you accountable but to grow awareness and action together?
Where can you lead with intention instead of division? How can you approach conversations and content with reflection rather than anger?
And finally: where do you need permission to evolve? What beliefs are you holding onto that no longer serve you? What have you learned that’s changed your perspective? Your voice can change as you do. You can choose and re-choose. That’s not weakness, that’s wisdom. That’s the beautiful gift of growth.
The Core Truth
You don’t have to be loud to be powerful. You just have to be honest. You can disagree with someone and still respect them. You can speak up without tearing people down. You can lead a business that doesn’t shy away from what matters. Community matters more than comfort.
You don’t have to do it all online. Show up where you can sustain it, where it feels real, where it keeps your heart soft instead of hardened. Find the issues that break your heart and let them compel you to leadership, not just action.
Lead with intention, even when it’s imperfect. Stay curious. Stay humble. Stay human.
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