No, it isn’t easy to reveal yourself to the world. Not your face, not your body and certainly not your personality. Someone might criticize you, someone might call you unprofessional. You might lose business, lose face or lose friends. Yeah, it’s scary to be vulnerable like that. Who needs that vulnerability if you can still go on business as usual? If you’re still getting clients and making a nice living?
Your business needs it, that’s who. Now imagine being in the market for a consultant and visiting the website of one who has tons of pictures of herself on her site. Imagine seeing her freely talk about her family, her divorce or even her dyslexia in her bio. Then imagine visiting the website of a consultant who has used stock photography of a team of people wearing suits, posing in an office. Imagine reading her canned bio that talks about how many years the consultant has worked and for which companies but offers nothing about that person herself. Nothing private, nothing vulnerable and nothing deep. Who would you be more likely to hire? THAT’s what you’re doing to your business when you don’t feel secure enough to use yourself in your marketing.
So, read on to see how you can be using yourself to increase your business power from a previous article about this very topic:
Happy International Women’s Day. It’s been a tough job being a woman through history. Today, it’s easier but a whopping 82%* of all Canadian women still hide or feel uncomfortable when they’re taking a picture. Here’s another sad statistic: 6 out of every 10* woman in the world has stopped doing something they love because they felt bad about how they looked.
So is it any wonder that every day, I meet successful, competent and smart women who refuse to use themselves in their marketing? Those who don’t want to use their own picture as their web banner. Those who feel too insecure to write their own thoughts or express their own expertise. No, it’s not surprising but here’s why if you’re in that boat, you need to change and change fast.
Why Are We Scared?
An economy professor recently made the claim that if every woman in North America stopped using beauty or weight loss products for only a week, the Health and Beauty industry would collapse in the same way that the airline industry collapsed post 9-11. That means that there are a lot of people depending on us feeling pretty bad about ourselves. So think about the years of messages you consumed that it took to get YOU to feel inadequate and unworthy of standing up to claim who you are. If you don’t feel desirable, how could you want your picture to be plastered all over your marketing?
Vulnerable Is Weak
The reason so many business owner women refuse to put their personal story, their true thoughts and character on display for everyone to see in their marketing is that it makes them vulnerable. Vulnerable to rejection and ridicule. Vulnerable to loss of income, clients and friends. However, research shows that the opposite of vulnerability which is perfectionism- is correlated with depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis or missed opportunities. What are you willing to do now to step out into your own authenticity?
“We Have To Be Women We Want Our Daughters To Be”–Brene Brown
The true case for becoming your brand in your business isn’t just because it will attract the kind of clients you’d love to work with. It isn’t because you’ll make more money and feel better about yourself. It’s really about modeling for the future generations. And although I have a son, not a daughter it still holds true that I want him to see me speak my shameful moments, be at peace with my true personality and live in the reality of my true thoughts while refusing to be perfect. What are you teaching your children by refusing to show up in your own business as who you truly are?
Show up to the world and in your marketing as who you really are and I guarantee you’ll be happier for it.
*Dove research, 2012
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