My fear is that by marketing myself, I will come across boastful. I love what I do- sharing ideas and energy about how to make their lives more meaningful and fulfilling, but because I don't market myself well, I miss a lot of opportunities to do just that. What I realised when speaking to a good buddy of mine Ben, is that I need not think of it as "selling" or "marketing" myself. He said that I should just ask myself "do you want to be able to share what you have discovered with others?". And if the answer is yes, then I need to be brave and tell them about what it is I can share. I think my issue is that I feel that a lot of what I do is just getting people to recognise things that are simple and already within them. So why should they pay me to do that. Yeah, you know, I think I would rather just have a million conversations with each of the people in my audiences for free and share the information with them that way instead. But alas, my reach would be so small...
At the end of the day, I still struggle with this issue and have done for many years. Have any of you faced this issue and if so, can you share what helped for you? :)
I really believe that simply sharing content is the best way to start "advertising" yourself. It is always more powerful if other people tell the world how awesome you are rather than you doing it yourself. I don't trust those who self-praise themselves, especially if I don't see anyone else echo that praise. Once you find your "medium" (video? audio? written? blog? vlog? social media?), post content and let people share it to get a life of its own. By putting quality content that answers a relevant question and connects with the people you want to reach, you will automatically position yourself as a reference/expert/coach/speaker or whatever term you're comfortable with and what service you want to market. It doesn't mean you won't benefit from pushing that content out there and reaching out to people who are likely to engage your services, but at least it will be a first step to build your name, reputation and to get you more comfortable being in the limelight :)
ReplyDeleteThe comment above is very true, no-one enjoys hearing self praise outside of a job interviews as it tends to signal, at least for me, huge underlying insecurities at the very least. For example; a few of us met a new colleague over beers this week who has been forced to work with us due to a merger (so therefore not necessarily culturally like the existing team). He spent the first 30 minutes trying to impress us with statements like "my children go to a very expensive private school", "I own a boat on the south coast of the UK", "let me show you a picture of my sports car", by the end of the night we were EXHAUSTED and defintely not impressed listening to how great this man was, but also puzzled by his actions as they didn't back up his statements; he was very rude to the bar staff, his sweater had a hole in it, he talked over people and never listened.Bottom line is; while his talk of success and (questionable) achievements was meant to make us appreciate him as a successful and invaluable team member, his actions and general demeanor suggested otherwise.
ReplyDeleteThe point being that: all the people who I have met and admired and been impressed and even inspired by, have not been big self talkers. They have been quietly confident in their own skills and its only over time that I and others REALLY realize how lucky we are to have them around (current boss is an example). They surprise and delight by accidentally mentioning in passing wonderful things they have achieved, as a sideline to a something else they were saying e.g. "while I was lecturing maths in country X, I dated person Y", and I'm thinking... "Wow, wait a minute, you lectured maths??? WHEN?? WHAT?? After 3 years of knowing you I find out??"
To summarize, those that are good at what they do just get on with life the world appreciates them, they don't have to try too hard! ;)
P.S: Came here via Facebook, you'll never guess who, all the best - from London