How to Feel More Confident About Self Promotion

BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”

I work with lots of experts and authors on media training and strategy, and a lot of them struggle with self promotion but want people to know about their books. 

Like many of us, they don’t want to seem “salesy” or as if they have a huge ego. 

For example, I worked with Brandi Doming, author of “Vegan 8,” to train her for media while she was promoting her book. She initially didn’t want to do video and struggled a bit with self promotion. 

Brandi wrote her  book about veganism because she was able to help her husband cure his gout when they changed his diet. His illness affected their family greatly. They had to cancel plans and vacations whenever he had a flare-up and there was no end in sight. She started changing his diet and found that sticking to a vegan diet helped to get rid of the symptoms. 

When I was working with Brandi, I asked her about when she was desperate for a solution to help her husband. I asked her if she would have loved for someone to tell her there was a better way to cure her husband’s gout. 

She said of course! 

Well there you have it! She is now THAT person who could make such a difference for someone else. 

Reframing self promotion as helping others is one way to get over your self-consciousness about talking about your work. 

This isn’t about self promotion — this is about being of service and helping people live better lives!  

Recently, I was a guest speaker at Dorie Clark’s RExCon event in NYC. Another one of the  speakers was my friend Petra Kolber, author of “The Perfection Detox.” 

When someone in the audience asked about imposter syndrome and how to get over it, Petra pointed to this quote from Seth Godin: “We should feel like imposters — you’re doing things you’ve never done before.”

 Petra also reminded us that this means you’re stretching yourself and you should embrace the feeling. 

Sometimes, it can feel uncomfortable to promote ourselves — whether in media coverage or discussions with friends and family — because we feel like imposters. 

It’s hard to be confident about supporting your own achievements when you feel insecure about your work. Like Petra said, that feeling of insecurity and imposter syndrome can actually be a good thing, because it’s evidence that you’re challenging yourself and trying new things. 

Turns out Dorie Clark has also written a great piece about self-promotion in this Harvard Business Review article. 

The perfect time to try this out is when you’re getting together with friends and family. You have valuable knowledge, and it’s all about finding the right ways to communicate that. Practice talking about what you do to be of service to people. That will make all the difference in how you present yourself.

BONUS FREEBIE: Your message deserves the media’s attention. So how do you get out there in a bigger way? I’ve got you covered. CLICK HERE to grab my free “Checklist to Become a Go-To Media Expert.”