How courageous are you in promoting yourself?

May 9, 2016

Do you shy away from promoting yourself?  Are you afraid or uncomfortable talking to people about what you do and your successes?  Would you like to have the confidence to successfully educate others about what you offer?

Whether or not we enjoy it, we are promoting our ideas, skills, products and services every day.  The main difference is that some of us are much more effective in promoting ourselves than others.  The good news is that everyone can learn how to effectively promote themselves with confidence and integrity.

“My Work Will Speak for Itself”

During my whole corporate career I was bad at promoting myself – I just went to work, did my job and believed that if I did a really good job my efforts would be recognised and rewarded.  There was nothing I would need to say – my work would speak for itself.

It wasn’t until I started my own business over 15 years ago that I realised that my previous approach was limited in success.  Being really good at what I did meant little if no one knew that I existed, and how I could help them.  In addition to overcoming my fears and self doubts, promoting myself was a skill that I needed to learn quickly if I wanted to help people and succeed in my own business… so I did.

A Courageous Move

While in the US on some training, I decided to challenge myself.  I had another week in the US so I set a goal to have my first business client in that week.  I had a whole week to achieve that goal – the same week I decided to go to Las Vegas for some sightseeing, shows and shopping (the rest was of no interest to me).  Soon after checking in at The Venetian and settling into my room, I decided to make 50 phone calls to local businesses.  I found the local phone directory and chose 50 businesses to call, prepared a quick introduction and started making the calls.

In hindsight, this was a courageous move – I was in a new country, new market, I knew no one and these were the first ever cold calls I was making in my new business.  Call after call, I was rejected.  After 5 calls, I had all “nos”, 10 calls later, still all “nos”, 20 calls later, all “nos”, 30 calls later… you guessed it, all “nos”.  I continued with my calls, determined to achieve my goal.  On the 35th call, I received my first “yes”!  I was excited – I had secured a meeting with a potential business client!

A couple of days later, I met this potential business client and gave my presentation (the very first presentation I had ever given to a potential client in my business).  The manager was impressed and asked me to do a training for his team a week later!  I was so excited…..

Remember if you never go out on a limb, you will never get the fruit.

Luck Had Nothing to Do with It!

Even though I was in Las Vegas at the time, luck had nothing to do with my success – it was sheer self-belief, skill, motivation, follow through and action that delivered results.  The good news is that if I could do it (and I had never promoted myself so directly before), anyone can – even a novice can now replicate this success.  The major obstacle that prevents professionals and business owners from having the courage to promote themselves and to do it successfully is fear and self doubt.

If you would like some more courage and skills to promote yourself with confidence and integrity, and secure more career/business opportunities, these FREE NLP resources will assist you.

You are welcome to leave your questions below and I will be happy to assist.  Alternatively, feel free to email me for a confidential reply.

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