Knowing how to self-promote will help you get ahead in your career, and you will need that every day, from the first day of pre-school to your first day at your new job.
It’s your responsibility to pave a place in the world for yourself. Rise above your insecurities.
We recently published an article talking about one of self-promotion’s biggest obstacles: Impostor Syndrome, and how to beat it. So, for all of you who may be thinking your accomplishments are not that big of a deal to share, or that maybe you are not good enough for the job you have or aspire to have, make sure to read it and internalize its message.
What’s My Message? What Do I Have To Share?
Self-promoting doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Some of us are a little bit more confident and find it easy to point out our strengths and share our work so our abilities are known, and some of us often struggle to find the way, and the moment, to say how good we are at something and talk our way into a new achievement, heaven knows some of us even struggle to even believe we have something good to promote.
Whether you’re on the confident or insecure side of the spectrum, this article comes in handy if you’re wondering if you should self-promote or if it’s even okay to do it.
Why Is Hard To Talk About Your Achievements
Well, nobody likes a braggart. But we sure dislike a humblebrag even more. It seems like we don’t like people who take excessive pride in their strengths but it’s even worse if the person tries to mask it with fake modesty. Complicated.
The answer appears to be: balance. You need to be talkative about your success, but not too much. You need to be humble, but not too much. You need to be confident, but not too much. And don’t forget to level up to what you say about yourself, because if not, you’ll be a charlatan.
Kinda difficult, right?
Well, fear not. We will show you just how and when is best to self-promote so that you can fully be confident in your abilities and not awaken uncomfortable feelings in the people around you.
Don’t Be Afraid To Share Your Story
It’s important to stand up and make your voice heard. Most people limit themselves to living in the shadows, where no one sees, or hears what they have to say. But then, the world goes by and they lose the opportunity to shine and rise.
You need to know that it’s okay to feel proud of yourself. It’s okay to congratulate yourself. And it’s okay to share your skills and experience with someone.
According to Personal Brand Strategist, Lizz Smoak, your message, that something you have to tell that can show the world your greatness, comes from the most difficult moments of your life. Think about any kind of crisis you experienced and how you managed to survive it.
There is where your skills and survival instinct shine, in the way you manage to grow and evolve outside of any crisis. Your message comes from your survival instinct, and how it manifested in that particular moment of your story.
Everybody Has A Story To Tell
One of the most beautiful and magical things about humans is that we heal, grow, and nurture ourselves from the connections we make with other humans. So telling your true message, sharing what you went through and how you rose above it, the knowledge that brought you may touch somebody else’s mind and inspire them to do the same. Your story must be told. Your learnings have value.
What I’m trying to say with all of this is, that self-promotion must not come from a place of eagerness to be known or hunger for success, but from a place of self-worth, love, and validation. Being confident is not the same as being arrogant, and knowing that difference is key to being successful.
When you speak about yourself, do it from the heart and speak the truth only. Of course, you can choose what parts of your story are relevant depending on what you want to promote about yourself, but make sure to do it with the respect your learning deserves, and the humbleness all humans deserve as well.
Respect Yourself And Others
Expert on Leadership and Career Mastery, May Busch, explains the best way to self-promote consists of two principal aspects: how you frame it and how you actually do it.
A great deal of how your self-promotion will be conceived by others is defined by how you conceive it in the first place. Meaning, you need to have an appropriate mindset before doing it.
Rather than seeing self-promotion as an awful, uncomfortable task that’s going to make you look like a braggart in front of others, see it as your responsibility to advertise your brand, whether it’s a personal or a business brand.
If you lead a team, it’s your responsibility to tell the story of your team and their learning, as well as their strengths and abilities to keep everyone in the market, informed about what you, or your team, have to offer. Another way people will simply don’t know.
By doing this, you can inspire, motivate, and gain more opportunities for your business or personal brand. Now that we covered the “how you frame it” part, we can get down to action. How do you actually do it?
Keep It Factual
A great way of showing that you’re just trying to inform and share your message for no arrogant reasons is to keep what you say down to facts. Instead of using lots of adjectives and speaking from your opinion about what you have achieved, say the facts. Tell people what happened.
For example, you could say “I wrote a best-selling book last year” rather than saying “I can’t believe my skills are so great I wrote a best-selling book”.
Be simple. Describe. Give the credit you deserve, but keep it cool.
Put It Into Context
Think about why it’s important that you say what you want to say. Is it relevant right now? Is it the time and the place? We all have a slight rejection towards people who only talk about themselves and are incapable of listening to what others have to say, so you don’t want to come off as someone who just wanted to say something good about themselves to be liked or envied.
This means if you want to self-promote, think first if what you want to say is relevant to what’s happening at the moment. And if it is, it will surely have a better impact on people.
For example, it would not make any sense if when someone makes x mistake, you go and say “I could never make such a mistake since I’m an expert in that area” But if in the same situation, someone asks for help you could say “I can help, I studied/learned that in school”. Then it would make sense to talk about your experience in the said area and how you learned to do that.
Keep It Quick
If someone wants to learn more about your experience knowledge and skills, they will ask. So, when self-promoting you want to keep it short: say the relevant fact and don’t go on making the whole conversation about yourself, unless people are interested and ask you to keep going.
It’s all about recognizing the worth your skills have but don’t show it in a way that might bother others and have the exact opposite effect you wanted.
So, the keys to self-promoting are trusting and recognizing your skills, not being afraid to share your story, and knowing the right way to do it, which means: keeping it factual, quick, and in context.
Self-trust and determination are the foundation of any successful career, so start working on your self-esteem and everything will come easier for you.
Now, go out there, share your message, and don’t be afraid to show how talented you are!
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