What Playing Small Did To Me

Even though I have now written a bestseller on how to Be Brilliant and truly embrace who you are and play full out…

There was a time in my life where I used to play small. 

Believe it or not I actually grew up being told not to stand out. Not ever because I wasn’t good enough, but I was told to work silently, achieve silently, not step on anyone's toes. 

And I think this is a very common thing repeated over and over again to women as we progress through our lives. 

From little girls we are told to sit quietly instead of playing loudly with the boys. 

We are praised for being mature, when being mature is just us learning to be well mannered and polite when we really should be making mistakes and being kids. 

All of the societal training we receive tells us to blend into the background, to do everything we can to not stand out. 

This theme continued with me from childhood into my tertiary education and even after I graduated. 

I remember once in my career I was talking to a career consultant. 

I had just moved to Australia and was struggling despite all of my corporate success to find a job that suited my level of expertise. 

This is when I was told to “wear pink and pretend you don’t know the answer”. 

I was shocked.

After years of experience, and success I was being told to hide. To keep being small because it made others more comfortable. 

The easy choice would have been to do what I was told… to wear the feminine colours and act like I didn’t know the answers. 

But I didn’t do that… 

I was done playing small for the comfort of others. 

If you’ve ever seen me in person you know I rarely wear pink, I wear bold colours, I am not scared to swear or tell it like it is. I will stand on stage and let the audience gasp as I hit them with stories and tactics that will actually help them grow, not what lets them feel comfortable. 

Because I realised something. 

Rarely do we play small for ourselves. 

While there is a certain level of comfort in staying in our lane, that isn’t where we grow. 

Playing small makes us frustrated. It feels like wheels spinning in the mud, getting messy and putting in the work and getting absolutely nowhere. 

We stay as the worlds best kept secret. 

And not only does this impact us… it impacts those around us. 

You see when we play small and quieten our brilliance, we show others around us that this is how they should be behaving as well. 

So we dampen their lights as well. 

Think about the people you spend the most time with, how brilliant they are… what if they started hiding this from you… what if they were playing small… what would you say? 

I realised that it was my job to play big, to take up space, to voice my opinion in a room where it used to be drowned out not only for myself but so that everyone else who I mentored or who I have impacted knew it was okay for them to do the same. 

For me this also is something I wanted to pass onto my kids. 

I wanted them to know that their brilliance and their voice deserved to take up space in this world even if it made some people uncomfortable. 

And in all of this if I truly wanted to leave a legacy, to impact women in business, and be proud of the way I had lived, I had to live full out. 

And the reason I am writing this today is to encourage you to do the same. 

Don’t be afraid to be who you are, to ruffle some feathers, and let your unique brilliance shine. 

Because when you do… that’s when you finally will create the impact you’ve been striving for. 

Janine x

P.S. If you are ready to let your brilliance shine book a FREE CLARITY CALL - during this 15-minute call we will take a look at your current situation to see what is/isn’t working, uncover the #1 bottleneck restricting your growth and create a plan to welcome more impact, more sales and more profit. Book here.