I think a lot of people see 'coding' as one activity, but I see it as a third level of 'literacy':
'Coding' is not the same as 'software development' in the same way that 'writing' is not synonymous with writing poetry.
When you are writing, you are taking information and encoding it into the words of a language.
When you are doing math, you are taking information and encoding it as numbers to work with.
When you code, all you're doing is taking information and encoding it using letters and numbers. It's really not that different.
I think because they assume to do 'coding' means to do some large task involving coding. I think maybe one way to help people over that mental barrier might be to show them the ways in which they may already be 'coding' in that form of literacy without realizing it:
The tools and the language don't matter - if you're taking information and encoding it in letters + numbers to be executed, you are coding already!