how to get comfortable promoting your work
on cringe of self-promotion
The hardest part about writing is telling people you write.
Is your work good enough to share? Should you wait till you get better at it? What will people think? Are you sounding market-ing? Or worse, are you being cringy?!
It’s taken me a LONG time being okay telling people I write. Asking them to read, share ideas or even subscribe. I have been thinking hard on why that is so.
If you too find it challenging to talk about yourself or your work — this one’s for you.
being cringe is being free.
For the longest time I didn’t talk on my instagram stories because of the fear of being cringe. Colleagues, distant relatives, college peeps — so many people follow me on here.
At one point, I just went to hell with it. I love it. I especially love talking about books I read or something I wrote. I blocked a few people from my stories to create a safe space for myself, and then I just started owning it.
Embracing being cringy sets you free. You can be true undiluted potent version of you. You will attract people who are with you, on that similar journey at that moment. It lets you take risks, and explore and throw things against the wall to find out what works.
We find people cool who seem to have found acceptance for all their quirks and cringe and flaws, and instead use that to chisel their identity.
The fear of being cringey only keeps you where you are.
your future version
If you talk about your awesome amazing project, what do you gain? Answers are a bunch of obvious ones — Twitter likes, people on similar frequency, more opportunities, maybe even money. The best outcomes you can’t even predict.
The more important question is — what do you have to lose?
The answer most often is nothing. Except a few hours of over-thinking. The gains are so often so so much more than the loses.
Just think of your future version — will they not be glad you did everything you could to promote something you built?
do it your way
Self-promote in a way that feels authentic to you.
If you are not the loudest person in the room IRL, there is no need to be so on a URL.
When you push yourself to do what seems to be working for others, that dissonance makes you uncomfortable and less confident about the work you are putting out!
Let the way you talk about your work reflect who you are and how you operate.
people are kind
When I started telling my work peeps about my newsletter, I was very awkward.
What surprised me was how genuine + kind everyone was. Some of them read it, send me Slack DMs, or even mention it on calls.
My takeaway is people are generally very encouraging and appreciative of you putting yourself out there.
If you don’t remember the last time you were harsh or next-level judgemental towards someone’s work, then don’t expect the worse for yourself. If you do remember, then time to work on your little something.
This was first published on my weekly newsletter. Would love to have a place in your inbox.
