Promoting Yourself

[KristineS]

Since I didn't want to hijack another thread, I thought I'd pose my question here. This is kind of an odd dilemma to have, considering my job is promoting the company for which I work, but I'm really bad at promoting myself. More than anything else, I think this is the biggest hurdle I face when I consider starting my own business. I know I have ability and I'm good at what I do, and I'm confident that I could find work, but I worry that I'll be so reluctant to promote myself that I'll miss out on chances that I'll need to capitalize on to be successful. It's not that I'm shy, I can stand up in front of a room of people and speak or write for a national magazine without an issue. The issue is more that I feel like promoting myself is like bragging.

Did anyone else have this problem when they started out? Am I just being nuts?

[Harold Mansfield]

I did at first. But it's not really personal like a dating profile. You have to look at yourself as a business and you are promoting Kristine the company.
That's one of the reason's why I don't market under my actual name. It's much easier to be a company and keep my personal identity as much as possible.


Yes, there's a still an association, but I don't want my name to be the company since I use it for other things. Particularly when it comes to social media.

[Paul]

You have to look at yourself as a business and you are promoting Kristine the company.
.

I agree. Like Harold, I generally operate under a company name. That way I can refer to "the company" rather than myself. it's much easier to say the company did this and that etc. than saying "I" did it. Even if they know you are the only person in the company, I think prospects and clients appreciate that you consider it a "company".

[Freelancier]

I also do the company name and refer to my business as "we" instead of "I", because it's not about promoting me, it's about promoting my business.

But this also comes back to "not selling". When someone calls, I'm trying to help them, not sell to them. So when I'm promoting what I do, I'm promoting that I'm here to help, not here to sell them something. It's easier to offer that and not feel like you're bragging... and having someone reject your help is easier on the ego than having someone reject you.

[Blessed]

Me too, me too...

Like everyone else here - I promote Crazy Dog, not myself. Of course I have a group of clients who call me "Crazy Dog" now :D but hey! It works - they remember me and since I only do specialized things for them a few times a year - remembering me is important.

Another thing I hear myself doing when talking about the work I do is differentiating between who I am professionally and who I am personally. Professionally - I'm a perfectionist, making sure every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed... And I've been in the business for 20 years, so I know what I'm doing. Personally I'm a lot more relaxed and am all about figuring out a way to make something work - even if it isn't exactly perfect. Sometimes I feel like Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde - but it's just that I'm much more precise about my work than I am about how clean my ceiling fan blades are or how exactly I sewed that ruffle on my daughters outfit... - and as a one-woman shop, it's ok to talk about that.

Most of the time when we start talking about my experience and what I can bring to the table technically - I jokingly say "I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my work" and the other person says something along the lines of - oh, I know exactly what you mean, I am too... then I do my best to explain in layman's terms why files have to be built certain ways, etc... and that whole 20 years of experience - with 8 of it directly in a print shop comes into play.