Most people are not afraid of visibility; they are afraid of being seen as the person who talks about themselves too much. It is a fair fear — we all know that account. But look closer at what makes those accounts unbearable: it is not self-promotion itself, it is promotion without proof. Claims with no work underneath them.
The antidote is sequencing. Showing up is the work — the thinking, the results, the documented process. Showing off is simply the report. When the report follows the work, people experience it as generosity: you are letting them learn from what you built. When it precedes the work, they experience it as noise.
Practical ratios
A useful discipline: for every one piece of 'look what I did,' publish three pieces of 'here is how it works.' Teach the framework, share the mistake, document the process — then, occasionally, point at the outcome. The three earn you the right to the one. And the one, done this way, converts better than a hundred unsupported claims, because the audience has already watched the evidence accumulate.
If self-promotion still feels uncomfortable, change the subject of the sentence. Not 'look at me' but 'look at this result, and here is what it might mean for you.' Same achievement, different posture. The first is vanity. The second is service — and service scales.
You do not need permission to be visible. You need proof, order, and the discipline to keep showing up after the novelty wears off. That is the whole game.