Self-Promotion is a Good Thing

Last week I talked about the inimitable Peter Drucker. I talked about the fact that a business exists to create a customer. We went on to talk about the fact that innovation and marketing are the two key functions of a business. I believe, as I mentioned in the post, that personal development is innovation.

As you know, business is about people. Business deals with, and is conducted by, people. Anyone who has a job is in business, wouldn't you say? As we know, even professional sports, and Hollywood movies, are a business. If it makes money, it's a business, even if what it does is illegal.

What I mean to say is that innovation and marketing are the two vital functions of business. The thing is, I believe you are a business. Tom Peters would call it “The Brand You.” We live in the most mobile society in all of history. Not only do people come and go but so do companies. These days, few people work their entire lives for one company. For these reasons, I believe you need to view yourself as the CEO of your own life. You need to see yourself as a business.

I say, when it comes to your work life, you are a business. And so, it only stands to reason that your two main functions are also innovation and marketing. Last week we talked about the innovation side of things. And, this week, we'll discuss marketing.

There are many ways in which to conceptualize and understand marketing. For now we'll talk about the Four-P's approach. The Four-P's is a traditional way of looking at marketing and the P's stand for: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. You are the Product. And, you increase the value of that product when you work on yourself through personal development. As you can imagine, the Place is the physical geography where you perform your services. Price is what you get paid and it's a function of many things, including supply-and-demand, as well as your ability to negotiate. Simultaneously, your Price and Place are largely dependent on your willingness and ability to Promote.

I used to make a mistake that I know a lot of other people make as well. I used to think that if I simply did great work I would get noticed. I came to find out this is not the case. I came to realize we have to put ourselves out there and we have to let people know that we exist. We have to let people know about all the good work that we do. Basically, we have to, “Toot our own horns,” as they say.

This horn-tooting is the Promotion part of marketing. It's called “self-promotion” and it's vitally important. I used to be a very shy person and yet I would get upset whenever I was overlooked. Pretty dumb, I know. As I have eluded, I thought that if I simply did good work the world would take notice. Turns out, that's not how it works.

I went to a great school and worked extremely hard on the intellectual side of myself. But, what I came to learn was how short I was coming up when it came to the emotional side of life. In a word, I was afraid. I was afraid to stand out. I was afraid to self-promote.

A lot of you reading this are thinking that self-promotion is unseemly or bad. Let me help you out, because you're making a big mistake. If you refuse to self-promote, if you think self-promotion is a lowly and undistinguished behavior, I am willing to bet you're simply scared to do it.

That's the funny thing about our minds. The mind can come up with all sorts of ingenious excuses. Most people who don't self-promote will not accept the fact that they are scared. Instead, they will suggest that self-promoters are unethical or somehow devious creatures. But that's not true. It is completely possible, indeed necessary, to be an ethical self-promoter. In fact, I once read a great book titled Confessions of Shameless Self-Promoters. It's a great read. I highly recommend it.

If you're really smart, that is to say, if you have innovated the hell out of yourself, I say good job. But realize, you're only working half of the equation for success and effectiveness. You also need to market yourself. In a word, you need to self-promote. When you begin to self-promote you will really begin to take the lid off and discover your true potential. Oh, by the way, you will also get paid a lot more money.