Self-promotion feels bad — Kelford Labs Weekly

I mean, it does, doesn’t it?

Okay, to be fair, I’m sure there are a few people who read this newsletter for whom self-promotion feels great. And that’s great for them (you?).

But I think for most of us, most of the time, talking about how helpful and valuable we are actually feels uncomfortable.

When you get the opportunity to talk about yourself, your business, your value, how often do you struggle to say the right thing?

Even if you have all the public speaking confidence in the world, how often do you have the right words?

Today’s newsletter, though, isn’t going to tell you to get over your fear or give you the perfect script to speak from in those moments.

No, it’s here to remind you that most of us feel this way when we try to promote ourselves, and that’s normal and okay.

You’re not weird or bad or a failure for finding self-promotional marketing difficult. Because it is!

Think about how many marketing messages you’re inundated with every single day. Hundreds, probably thousands of individual people, businesses, organizations, and governments are trying to get your attention, every waking moment.

And they’re all, at least in some small way, trying to change your behaviour, too.

In the middle of all that noise, to which we’re all constantly subjected, you’re supposed to get noticed.

More than that, you’re supposed to be so good at getting noticed that people spend money on you. The one thing they’re trying not to do most of the time.

Sounds pretty difficult to me!

Add to this the fact that “bragging” feels wrong, and maybe even desperate, and you’ve got quite the formula for fear and its fellow, procrastination.

But like I said above, today isn’t about the one perfect answer. No, I haven’t found the solution for anxiety in all its forms, try as I might.

But I have found a way to talk about my business confidently and consistently:

This newsletter.

Every week (every weekday, if you’re a Daily subscriber), I get to communicate to the people Close to me an idea, a perspective, and hopefully a useful tool or framework or set of questions.

I get to think deeply about what they need to hear, and what I do.

I get to articulate my ideas in ways that are memorable and meaningful.

That’s not just helpful for my readers, it’s helpful for me. Because now I have hundreds of different ways of talking about my value and my perspective, that I merely have to recall and remix to have something to say at any given opportunity, in any given moment.

Because I’ve already said it.

Part of the problem with self-promotion is not just in the telling, it’s in the thinking. It’s in the stumbling for the right words. But if we already know the sentiment behind what we want to say, because we’ve thought and written about it before, we’re less likely to flail or flounder.

So if there’s anything I hope you take away from this today, it’s that self-promotion feels bad and that’s okay.

But I also want you to know that it gets easier when you already know what to say because you’ve already said it before.

So start that newsletter.

Do a few test episodes of that podcast.

Write up some content for LinkedIn.

It won’t feel any better or easier until it feels routine.

So all we can do is get started.

Let me know if you’d like some help.

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

Kelford Inc. shows communicators the way to always knowing what to say.