Give Freely Of Your Natural Born Gifts.

Don’t let a lack of confidence in yourself about your product or service hold you back from success. When you hold back from promoting you are denying your customers your knowledge, expertise and experience. Give freely of your natural born gifts to others. Once you understand that you are your best advocate and brand ambassador, and you begin to promote your products and services with gusto and zeal, you will see the return many times over from happy customers whose lives are enriched by what you have provided to them.

Many brilliant leaders I've worked with say they don't want to "toot their own horn", because they feel they are boasting. They also feel their product and services are, "So great they will sell themselves." I've also heard, "I shouldn't have to tell my customers about the merits of my products, they should be obvious." These are all excuses brought on by fear and a lack of self confidence.

I've also heard from some that aggressively promoting a product is "salesy"... well... yes. How will anyone know about what you are trying to sell if you don't tell anyone what you are up to, fully believing you have the best product in its category?

It's interesting when I probe with questions about the promotional strategy for a new brand or product launch with our child-resistant packages, and the answers are an afterthought, like the company is simply hoping and waiting for someone to buy, that the phone will magically ring, or customers will wander aimlessly into a dispensary and choose their product.

This of course is rarely the case.  

Think about it--you as a leader or an entrepreneur put blood, sweat and tears into a new product launch. You ride the roller coaster of emotions... sleepless nights, finances on the line, strained relationships... (I have been there myself.) You put everything behind your product, and you truly believe you have the right stuff and you have created something that will change the world! You have the right product, at the right time, and after months of preparation you launch. Then, you sit and wait. Sit. And wait. And wait. And wait. 

And before you know if, the market has passed and you wonder why things didn't go as you hoped they would, upset at yourself, (or blaming others) for the lack of conversions and success.

As a CEO or Founder, not promoting your product enough, is not enough. Not promoting your product at all, is selfish. Think of it this way:

Most of the reasons why people don't promote their own products is because they make up stories about themselves on why they can't promote, or labor over technical details that don't matter, or deliberate for hours over the exact words to use, or what color shirt to wear--and really, none of this matters.

They are in effect talking themselves out of promotion even before they try.

Most people in this world are very creative. Everyone I talk to regarding something they are passionate about can create amazing products or services, and depending on what they are into, can create something that customers truly need.