The Secrets to Success Discovered Through Self-Promotion

by Debbie Allen

Published on this site: April 6th, 2005 - See more articles from this month...

It amazed me to discover that over 87 percent of the people I surveyed felt extremely uncomfortable with the concept of self-promotion. Many of these same people hold themselves back from too many missed opportunities to become successful because of it.

Where did the fear of self-promotion come from? Many learned the opposite from their parents as they were growing up. They where taught to believe that it was not polite to talk about themselves; if they do, it will come across as pushy, rude or they will appear to have a big ego.

Some parents may have taught that, and also said, "Go out in the world on your own and be successful." This combo-belief goes against the grain of all sales and marketing success!

How can you be successful if you don't tell others what you do and how you can help them? You can't! If you don't self-promote, you are holding yourself back from too many missed opportunities and the success that you truly deserve!

Undeniably, there is unethical self-promotion. We've all witnessed it, and maybe even lost business to it. But unethical or ineffective self-promotion is not what we're discussing.

You can do successful self - promoting with class, ethics and service to others. Begin to look at self-promotion from this day forward as serving others instead of self-serving.

I'm sure you are passionate about what you do and truly want to help your customers. If that is the case - don't you want to help more and more people that could use your services and/or products? You can't do that if you don't successfully self-promote and tell more people about what you do. Tell others why you are the expert and share success stories from your customers. Your self-promotion, when done well, helps people to get what they desire.

The most successful people in the world are all self-promoters. These are the people that talk in elevators! In fact, behavioral scientists, George Dudley and Shannon Goodson, have made a career out of studying the science of self-promotion to prove it. Their assessment identifies the ways in which we unconsciously avoid self-promotion and limit our success. Their research studies discovered that "self-promotion is directly related to success."

If you don't toot your own horn, you can't enjoy the music.

Debbie Allen, is an international professional speaker and author of four books, including best selling, Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters. Download a free chapter, sign up for your free Shameless Marketing Newsletter and view Debbie's demo video in action at: http://www.DebbieAllen.com