May 11, 2014 - Written by: Erin Johnson

Show ‘Em What You’ve Got

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Dinnertime at the Johnson household usually means being subjected to my mother’s fascination with back-to-back nightly news, and last weekend was no different. After getting bummed out about all the mayhem in the world, and realising that the news anchor was wearing hipster glasses, a story came on that got me thinking about my professional life.

The report was on career coach, Peggy Klaus, who has a programme that teaches high school girls how to brag. She said that women have a tendency to ‘put our heads down and do really good work’, while cheering for co-workers. However, most of us fail at promoting ourselves.

This had me thinking about my career and my own hang-ups with self-promotion. Like when I went to a networking event with a previous boss, and she commented that I was a little too humble. And the many other times that I’ve received similar remarks. Which is a bit ironic because I have a background in marketing and am used to promoting things. However, I do find it difficult to market myself.

Perhaps it’s because I was always taught the importance of modesty. Also, humility is one of the greatest virtues, right? But are many women taking this too far? Are we being humble to a fault?

The Case for Self-Promotion

Unless you’re in a field with low competition and ample opportunities, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of fighting for the attention of employers (or clients or funders). And, with many others vying for the same shot, and armed with similar qualifications, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle. It may be tempting to think, ‘well, I graduated at the top of my class’ or ‘hopefully the recruiter will notice that really prestigious internship I did last year’. Yeah, that’s nice and all, but talent and great work alone are not enough. Especially when they are barely acknowledged.

Each of us knows how cool we are, and our family and friends know it too (hopefully). But do the people in charge of the hiring, firing, and promoting know our unique greatness? Plus, if we’re afraid to share our individual awesomeness, how will they ever know?

We’ve got to become our own cheerleaders.

The Art of Self-Promotion

There’s always the fear that self-promotion is sleazy and you run the risk of coming off as desperate and/or narcissistic. That’s a valid point, since many of us don’t aim to be the Kardashian of our industry. Also, there’s often a fine line between confidence and vanity. So, how do we advertise our skills without being tacky? I decided to see what professionals had to say on this topic.

I came across an article on Jezebel that highlights advice from several popular books on self-promotion; and it has some really helpful points. For example, one tip is to show your strengths instead of simply telling them. This may include quantifying your accomplishments or quoting former employers, clients, etc. I found this useful, as I’ve noticed that a lot of people who do manage to self-promote throw out words like ‘visionary’ or ‘socialite’ without providing proof to back it up (see: countless Twitter and Instagram profiles). Another point that stuck out was to think about self-promotion as something you’re sharing to benefit your audience. Each of us has something to share that someone else will also appreciate.

Don’t forget to check out aliljoy’s Girl Got Game eBook! It has great tips on this topic and even gives a shout out to Shameless Maya, an artist who decided to promote herself every day for a year (which turned out to be a massive success). Why not check out her YouTube channel?