Self promotion might sound like a nightmare, but it doesn’t have to be like that.

What is it about self promotion that has many of us more introverted people cringing?

I suspect it has something to do with it containing the exact combination of elements we dread most such as :

• Visibility
• Attention
• Risk
• Praise

Basically, all the reasons why you should self promote in the first place! Self promotion can also help:

• Boost confidence
• Build a supportive network
• Attract new opportunities
• Gain recognition and promotion.

But self promotion doesn’t have to be completely overwhelming and intimidating, there are ways of singing your own praises without setting yourself up for overwhelm and the secret is:

Comfort - a method and medium that fits you

Creativity - learn storytelling for authenticity

Consistency - people forget easily

Define your comfort zone

Having decided that self promotion is not only necessary, but actually a good idea we need to start working on a plan of how you’re going to do it. If at any point in the questions below you start to back out of the whole idea, I’d suggest taking a step back and looking directly at your anxiety and what it’s trying to protect you from.

How would you prefer to communicate?

spoken or written form

Not all self promotion has to be verbal, if you cringe about talking about your successes writing about them can be a good starting point.

Who are you most comfortable telling about your successes?

The world, the industry, the company, the department, your team, your manager, a trusted colleague, a friend, your partner, the cat, yourself?

You might smile at the idea of talking to yourself or your dog or cat about your successes, but social anxiety is real and can be debilitating. Starting with formulating the positive thoughts in your head is a starting point. There’s no point in setting yourself the challenge of showcasing your successes with the department if you’re not comfortable with the thoughts inside your own head!

What platform(s) are you going to use?

There are more ways to self promote than speaking up in meetings about how amazing you are.

If the whole visibility thing is an issue for you, starting small is key. It’s better to start small and build confidence overtime than to get overwhelmed on your first attempt and never try again.

Here are some ways you might consider to build visibility:

• Share an update on successful project during a meeting
• Request a monthly face to face review with your manager
• Ask for feedback on your performance
• Share successful project outcomes in team channels
• Email your monthly project accomplishments to your manager
• Writing an article for the company newsletter about a project/workshop
• Post about a recent paper, challenge, success, course completion etc on LinkedIn
• Comment on other people’s posts on LinkedIn
• Tell a colleague about a project success

If all of these look intimidating close the one that you would most like to do and draft it on paper, in your head, without the intention of actually publishing/performing it.

Content is key!

Make sure you’re sharing the valuable stuff in a way that’s attractive to listen to. Story telling is a key skill set promoted heavily today to create content, and it’s not just designed for TED speakers. Learning the art of distilling the essential qualities you want to communicate and them building them up in an attractive narrative that’s appropriate for your audience whether it’s just you and your team lead, or the whole world is skill once learnt will serve you your whole life.

There are lots of free resources available to start you off on learning the foundations of creating good content.

Continuity - keeping it going!

We’ve all not only heard it said but also experienced first hand how starting is the hardest part. So once you’ve found the courage to start you need to keep going. Whatever you decide on, set yourself goals and develop ways to keep yourself accountable.

Let’s face it, we all have bad memories when it comes to our successes. We tend to reach a goal only to immediately start looking for the next problem to solve. If we forget our own successes so quickly how do we expect others to remember our talents when looking for people to promote?

The other important this to remember especially when using a platform such as LinkedIn for self promotion is that not everyone sees or hears everything you say. Commenting on other people's posts is a great way of maintaining visibility both within and outside of your team.

Keeping a diary of successes can be useful material for future reference because the fact is that to gain that recognition you deserve and desire you need to regularly feed the system with your skills and successes.

Sometimes we rule things out before we’ve actually tried it, if you really want more recognition in 2025, you have to start getting comfortable with your own success.

I’m Louise and I help introverted?scientists gain the confidence to be seen and heard so they can get the recognition they deserve and desire.?

DM me to arrange a discovery call to see how we might work together to achieve your goals.