3 Ways to Get Over Your Fear of Self-Promotion

So you’re fired up and ready to launch your media career…and then you see it.

The giant mountain of Self-Promotion, looming ominously, standing between you and your goals. It’s ugly, it’s craggy, and it can come with a degree of altitude sickness. 

Self-promotion feels icky for most of us. 

Fear of self-promotion ranks on our list of worst fears right behind losing all our loved ones, tsunamis, and gas station sushi. These are all rational fears.

But while some fears are helpful (like gas station sushi) because they keep us from making harmful mistakes, other fears don’t actually serve us.

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Instead, they let the possibility of pain eclipse our potential gains.

Take it from me: When it comes to self-promotion, you have nothing to fear but fear itself. (That’s how that quote goes, right?)

For instance, it’s scary to put yourself out there every time you have something to share but how will people know about it if you don’t tell them? 

Like the time I ended up on Delta’s In-Flight Entertainment system for my LinkedIn Learning course. If I didn’t tell you that - you wouldn’t know!

So let’s face your fears, one at a time:

1. You’re afraid you’ll come off as selfish or arrogant.

Self-promotion doesn’t require selfishness. 

Promoting yourself doesn’t mean you have to oversell your abilities or skill set. Exaggerating or lying about yourself is a surefire way to fail at self-promotion. 

Self-promotion means owning your hard work, expertise, and authority. 

It requires recognition of your goal: to help as many people as possible. You have to put yourself out there in order to get the word out. If you want to reach and help more people, you can’t wait for them to come to you.

You have to step into the spotlight and draw attention to the problems you’re solving and how you’re solving them. 

At the end of the day, self-promotion is hard work. If you stay centered by your why—helping people—it ends up being the very opposite of selfishness. You have something they need and it’s a disservice if you don’t tell them about it!

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Coming up...

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2. You don’t feel like an “expert.” 

An expert is defined as “a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.” Please note that it does not say, “A person with multiple Phds” or “A person who can definitively prove they are the absolute best in the world at this.” 

Truth is, you know something that other people don’t. You have experience and skills that others lack. You have researched and field tested solutions to problems, and the world needs your help! 

Accolades and degrees are nice. But if you keep playing small out of a fear of not being big enough, you’re guaranteed to limit yourself. And you’re denying people the help they need. 

Will there be people who scoff at you? Undoubtedly. But they’re not your audience. The audience is losing out when you silence yourself out of fear of criticism—or value your opposition more than your followers. 

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Catch up on last week's episode of Inside Scoop!

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3. You’re afraid of failure.

Of course! The heartbreak of failure is scary, for sure.

But leaving your potential untapped because of fear? That is the definition of failure: “A lack of success; the omission of expected or required action.” Yikes.  

Look, failure is a guarantee when you start putting yourself out there, no matter which way you slice it. 

There is a learning curve for crafting a pitch, knowing whom to pitch, killing it on air, and getting booked again and again. 

You’re bound to blow some leads, have a few slip ups, and learn a few hard lessons. That’s the price of progress.

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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.”

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If you’re willing to learn and grow, those failures can become the chisel that refines the potency of your message, the specificity of your brand, and the power of your reach. 

Facing your fears is, in many ways, the true marker of success. Or, as Teddy Roosevelt said (and Brene Brown reminded us),

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood…who… if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

This newsletter is your permission to talk about what you know best. You could reach people whose lives will change forever, all because you were generous enough to share your gift.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want to do more videos and get 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.”

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