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14 Mistakes To Avoid When Self-Promoting

Promoting yourself is necessary to grow your business, especially when you’re a startup founder or an entrepreneur. There are many effective ways to promote yourself, depending on your industry, experience level, target audience, objective and various other factors.

While there are plenty of “right” ways to promote yourself, there are also some things you should absolutely avoid when working on self-promotion. Here, 14 members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss these things and talk about why they should be avoided.

1. Making False Claims And Overpromising
Avoid making false claims. Being truthful and realistic about what you can deliver is key to building an authentic brand. While it might be tempting to overpromise in an effort to please and reassure your audience, ultimately, this will backfire and disappoint and lead to unmet expectations. Just be clear about what you can do and the likely results or impact. This makes you a trusted partner. - Linda McLoughlin, LeadershipWorks

2. Bragging When Highlighting Achievements
While self-promotion can often help establish credibility or highlight specific achievements, no one enjoys listening to someone brag. By sharing insights or lessons gleaned from an experience or accomplishment, you can choose to not highlight the notable item while still providing value to the listener, often increasing their interest in your message or story in the process. A true win-win. - Christy Charise, Strategic Advisor

3. Selling While Promoting Yourself
Never sell while attempting to promote yourself. Tell a story that attracts. Use the pull strategy, not the push strategy people often use when self-promoting. Never underestimate your audience’s emotional intelligence. They will distinguish a self-serving promotion from an honest client-serving vocation. - Mariana Ferrari, Dooit

4. Being One-Sided In Your Messaging
One of the big mistakes in self-promotion is being one-sided. Share all sides of your story. What worked and what didn’t work, what you stand for and what you don’t stand for. Share your expertise as well as what’s totally not up your alley, what you can truly deliver and what you can’t. In other words, share who you absolutely are and also who you aren’t. It’s often the contrast between black and white that brings clarity. - Vinesh Sukumaran, Vinesh Sukumaran Consulting

5. Focusing Only On Your Accomplishments
Self-promotion is not only about you and your accomplishments; it’s about understanding and explaining how you can add value to others. This requires emotional intelligence—self-awareness of how you show up and are perceived—and empathy, as it pertains to your audience and their needs. Making yourself and your work visible is as much about knowing what others value as it is about you. - Palena Neale, unabridged

6. Taking Credit For Others’ Work
One of the worst traits is when leaders take credit for others’ work as their own. While it might drive short-term accolades, it invariably creates distrust and lack of respect, meaning others won’t go the extra mile. It’s far better to recognize the achievements of others, as what goes around always comes around. - Sandra Pinnington, The WLA (Women Leaders Association)

7. Trying To Get It ‘Perfect’
Avoid trying to get it “perfect” because perfection is an illusion. Women, in particular, tend to be very hesitant to self-promote and are uncomfortable doing it. When perfectionism is added to the mix, you’ll probably never go out and actually promote yourself. - Micha Goebig, Go Big Coaching & Communications, LLC

8. Selling Yourself On Social Media
One of the biggest pitfalls I see is companies or self-employed people using social media as a platform to sell themselves, their products or services. Social media is about sharing knowledge and providing for the betterment of a community—not advertising! Use advertising tools such as paid ads for that purpose, and use social media posts to add value to your community and become the expert. - Kim Neeson, Kim Neeson Coaching | Consultant | Mentor

9. Talking About Yourself Or Your Company
Your customers don’t care about your company, the founder or how long you’ve been in business. They don’t even care about the features of your product or service. The one thing they care about is how your offer will help make their life better or help maintain their social status. So avoid talking about yourself and keep talking about your customer. - David Robertson, Growthpoint Coaching Co.

10. Calling Yourself An ‘Expert’
The one thing to avoid in self-promotion is calling yourself an “expert.” As you develop your craft and your coaching practice and grow in your role, you are on a continuous learning journey. By calling yourself an expert, you are claiming that there is nothing left to learn. If you are looking for alternatives to calling yourself an expert, consider “thought leader” or “subject matter enthusiast.” - Caroline Vernon, Intoo, USA

11. Going Into Sales Mode With Referrals
Misusing a referral as a prospect is a big mistake. If you have a referral, it’s time to determine the potential client’s needs. If they have a need you can assist with, ask more intelligent questions about their need. Going directly into sales mode and how great you are generally loses the potential client—and perhaps the client who referred you in the first place. - Gregory Stebbins, PeopleSavvy

12. Promoting Your Own Agenda
Avoid your own agenda. Avoid self-promotion altogether. Self-interest is the nail in the proverbial coffin. If you can truly focus on others, amazing things happen. People like to talk with people who are interested in them and their challenges. The opposite of self-promotion is curiosity. When you are curious, you will be invited in and others will promote you. - Brad Federman, PerformancePoint LLC

13. Assuming You Know What Matters To Your Audience
Don’t assume you know what is important or what matters to your audience. Actively listen and ask thoughtful, thought-provoking questions to truly understand what matters to your audience. Then, prepare your message with your audience’s values in mind. Showing your audience that you genuinely care enough to understand their needs will make you and/or your organization stand apart. - Cheri Rainey, Rainey Leadership Learning

14. Breaking Client Confidence
Breaking client confidence to self-promote is a complete deal-breaker to me. Preserving client confidentiality often involves us making a trade-off between personal gain and personal integrity. While sharing others’ (client) stories for impact or for boosting personal reputation is a great tool, I always advise using it with sensitivity and caution. - Rittu Sinha, The Balanced Bandwagon

As seen in Forbes.com

Stay The Course or Pursue Innovation?

First, ask yourself why you want to pursue innovation. Is your market changing? Asking yourself, “If I stay the course, what will happen in one year/three years/five years?” may help inform your decision. 

Sometimes taking your eye off what is working to focus on something new can actually hurt your current performance and your ability to keep growing what you’ve already built.

 ~As seen in Forbes.com

Remember, Thoughts Aren't Facts

Remember, thoughts are just sentences in your mind—they aren't facts. A thought is an observation or opinion you create about a circumstance. Remind yourself of the facts of a situation (“We will sell less this month,” for example) and take out the emotion (“I'm a failure!”). 

If you focus on the fact versus the emotion, the circumstance becomes neutral and measurable, not out of control.

 ~As seen in Forbes.com
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