Changing What You're Known For

By Tricia Scott

For twenty years, I was “the woman that works in property”

I started in data entry and worked my way up to company director. My identity wasn’t just tied to the business; it was the business. People introduced me as, “Oh, this is Tricia, she’s in property.” My phone buzzed constantly with calls about lettings and sales figures. Even at parties or in the pub, people would sidle up with stories about their leaky roof, non-existent heating, or nightmare landlord.

It wasn’t just my job. It was who I thought I was.

And then… I left.

Walking away felt like stepping out of my own skin. Who was I if I wasn’t “Tricia the property director”? Where did the woman go who loved the sea, who scribbled stories in notebooks, who dreamed of building something that gave her goosebumps and made her too excited to even keep a thought in her head?

Here’s what I’ve learned:

We tie so much of who we are to what we do.

It’s natural. Society wires us to ask, “So what do you do?” as if our business card is our entire biography. How many times when we meet someone new is this the first question we ask? Somewhere along the way, we’ve let job titles become shorthand for our worth. The hustle becomes our identity. Before long, it’s easy to forget where the business ends and the person begins.

You are not what you do.

You are not your sales figures, your to-do list, or your latest launch. You are not your client feedback or your Instagram following. You are who you are. 

You are the woman who belly-laughs until her mascara runs (the best kind). The one who craves the smell of the sea. The one who had big, wild, impossible dreams before anyone paid her for anything.

When we lose sight of that, we risk building a business that cages us instead of freeing us. A gilded cage so to speak. 

So many women I meet are afraid to change, to look like they’ve failed or be seen as hopping from idea to idea, that somehow that makes them appear flaky or unable to stick with anything but I call bullshit.

Show me a woman in flux and I’ll show you a multi passionate entrepreneur chasing her best life and you already know I’m here for it.

Changing what you’re known for is not failure - it’s freedom.

If you’re pivoting, reinventing, or just quietly admitting to yourself that what you’re doing now isn’t all of you, please hear this: It’s not starting over. It’s starting truer.

Because the business may change, but the core of you, the you who existed before the titles and will exist long after, is constant. And that’s the most powerful brand you’ll ever have.

So today, let this sink in: You are not what you do. You are who you are.

And the more her you allow into your business - the quirks, the edges, the humanness it doesn’t just succeed. It breathes. It endures. It becomes legacy.

Who cares what anyone else thinks anyway? This is how we become, and that kind of freedom looks gorgeous on you. 

I believe in you (always).

👉🏼If you want to receive a Biz Love Letter directly to your inbox every week, I email our Hello CEO mailing list every Monday. To join, head to The Homepage and sign up!

Tricia Scott is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Female CEO – Create Evolve Overcome, a global magazine, community, and platform championing women in business at every stage. A startup mentor and multi-company director, she has personally mentored more than 100 women and is an unapologetic amplifier of women’s stories, helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs step out of hiding and into their power, building businesses that feel as good as they look.

Through The Female CEO, Tricia curates a worldwide stage for women’s voices, strategies, and successes—because visibility isn’t a luxury, it’s a catalyst. When she’s not deep in conversation with her brilliant team of editors and contributors, you’ll find her with her MacBook in one hand and coffee (or something fizzy) in the other, dreaming up the next big way to make women feel seen, supported, and unstoppable.