Coming to Terms with Self-Promotion
I don’t particularly like self-promotion. I have shied away from it for most of my life because it makes me feel like I’m drawing unnecessary attention to myself. I have learned to equate self-promotion with arrogance, gloating, bragging, etc.
That may sound noble, or at least that’s what I’ve always told myself. But I’ve recently come to realise that there’s a shadow side to this attitude that is not serving me or others.
Until relatively recently, I worked for other people in corporate environments. There was always some buffer of safety working in big organisations. Someone else (clients, manager, board of directors, CEO) was making the big decisions about my job and I was just working to implement those decisions. I might have some say in what was being done, but the overall basics of what I was doing were prescribed for me.
A few years ago, I started my own company and really struggled with how to promote the business. I relied on a lot of referrals and, although I didn’t realise it or wasn’t willing to admit it, I wanted (even expected) other people to promote me — to actually be responsible for promoting me.
Once I realised that I was offloading the promotion of my business onto others, I learned that it was not serving me. Not just in terms of sales and efficiency but, more importantly, in terms of my own growth and being able to stand in my sovereignty. It was actually about integrity.
For me to stand in the truth of my business and what I have to offer to others, I need to be able to promote it — who I am, what I offer and what benefits my services yield for clients. That’s an ongoing learning for me, but the recognition of this dynamic completely changed my relationship to my business and to promoting it.
And that brings me to how a lack of self-promotion doesn’t serve others. It’s one thing if I don’t promote myself and my business and bottom line suffer. But promotion is also about acknowledging what service and assistance I can offer to others. If I’m not promoting what I have or can offer, the people who could benefit from it don’t know about it.
This discrepancy was made apparent to me recently on a more personal level than just my business. I host a podcast (The Adventures of Self) celebrating the trials, tribulations and triumphs of self-expression in this world. One way to promote a podcast is to be a guest on other podcasts. I was featured as a guest on The Journey Onwards podcast, talking about my life of travel and expat living.
It was in discussion with the host, Anand Dattani, that I began to acknowledge that my life on the road has had a particular meaning and value. Even more so, I learned to appreciate how my outward journey of living on 3 continents and visiting more than 50 countries is a reflection of and metaphor for my deeper, inner journey — the one that forms the basis of my business guiding individuals and organisations in Creative Purpose.
My first inclination was not to make much of this show but I have chosen to promote it as a service to anyone else who is somewhere on his or her journey in life and seeking to make some sense of it.
The episode of The Journey Onwards is entitled “How to Break Down Biases and Navigate Your Internal Journey of Opportunity, Discovery and Fun.” I didn’t choose the title but I do think it’s a brilliant description for what I choose to make life about.
