When boundaries become walls...

Since I moved into the on-line space, the one thing I have heard from just about every coach I've spoken with was, "Just be yourself and you will attract your ideal clients to you." But, how can you be yourself when you don't know who that is?

I worked in corporate America for 15 years. If you've worked in corporate you know that creating work-life boundaries is a must. You don't take your work home with you, nor do you take your home life to work. You share what you choose to share when you need to share it and you can't always react to situations the way you normally would in a home setting because, well, you can get FIRED (which is not a good thing). You may share more of yourself with your close co-workers, but the line is drawn in different places in the sand based on who the person is and what role he or she plays in your "work life".

For example, a close female co-worker was one of the first people to find out I was pregnant. However, a discussion about cord blood storage with my male boss and a male co-worker, both whose wives had recently had babies, was beyond uncomfortable.

While I was pretty guilty of bringing work home with me (stress, anger, frustration, etc.), I very rarely brought my home life to work - unless I had to. Like when I had to announce my dad's cancer diagnosis or my pregnancy in order to get my FMLA leave. And, I pretty much never swore at work, nor did I talk back without first considering the consequences to my job if I did.

Transitioning from this corporate mindset has without a doubt been the most difficult thing for me during this journey into entrepreneurship. Those boundaries I built in the name of professionalism became walls that now box me in as an entrepreneur.

As a result, I always overthink every communication I make in my brave new world. I hold a lot back in an effort to be "professional". What I've realized is that doing so has been causing me to be at a disadvantage in connecting authentically and creating new, healthy boundaries for MY business.
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Do you face this situation as you work to build your business? How do you share more of yourself? If you haven't been, what's one thing you can do today to chip away at that wall?