Seven Secrets of Self-Marketing

There is a delicate balance when it comes to shameless self-promotion, and you do not want to be guilty of overkill. When used appropriately, a personal marketing campaign will open doors and help you advance in your career. The seven secrets given here are key factors in making your visibility plan work seamlessly.

1. Make commitments and keep those commitments. The quickest way to lose credibility is to make promises that you do not keep. If you are drawn to make commitments in an effort to please others, but then find that you cannot keep those commitments, remedy the situation at once. Tell your colleague or boss that you have overbooked your calendar, and that you will have to extend your delivery date (but do not simply ignore the initial commitment date). In the future, underpromise; that is, if you think you can complete a task or project by Wednesday, tell your boss that you will have it to her or him by Friday. Then, if you do deliver by Wednesday, or even Thursday, you will look like a hero.

2. Demonstrate reliability, honesty, and respect. These three behaviors are inseparable, and they are all required as part of creating a positive self-marketing plan. You cannot fake these behaviors—either you practice them or you do not, and if you do not, you need to get a coach to help you move them up on your priority list.

   • Reliability. Like being trustworthy, being reliable is a quality that merits confidence or trust. If you walk the talk, if people know that you deliver on your promises, if you keep your word, you are known to be reliable.

   • Honesty. This is a measurement of the decency of your character—your refusal to lie, steal, or deceive in any way. Honesty includes honor, suggesting high personal standards, and a high regard for the standards of your profession, calling, or position.

   • Respect. To treat someone with respect—as you would be treated—is simply to create and demonstrate strong personal standards.

3. Employ initiative and optimism. This includes a readiness to seize opportunities or to convert problems into opportunities, to pursue goals beyond expectations, to influence others, and to operate from a platform of abundance and hope for success, rather than a fear of failure. People with this skill know how and when to take the initiative to solve problems and develop new ideas that will improve operations.

4. Show a sincere appreciation for your internal and external clients. This is not a place to be superficial. Take the time and effort to notice your clients’ good work, and share your appreciation with them. Every time you speak to one of your clients, listen to that client carefully, and come up with one thing to appreciate.

5. Look for opportunities to send the message that you are hard at work. This applies to everyone, but more specifically to remote workers. Without becoming a victim or a martyr, make sure that the people who should know that you are working do know it. Use the strategies here to share your productivity and progress:

   • Be available. If you work from home, let your boss, your team, and your internal and external customers know the specific times when you will be available during the day to field calls. If you have a regular at-home work schedule, send an email update on changes in your schedule to those who should know about your work. If you are based at home, but travel for work, set similar guidelines for your availability, sending more frequent “Where’s Linda” emails—short and to the point.

   • Whether you are an in-house or a remote employee, let your boss, your team, and your customers know your standards for responding to telephone calls, email, and other correspondence, and stick to it.

   • If you have joined your company as an off-site employee, you haven’t been exposed to your company’s culture, so you miss the opportunity to know what is customary and acceptable in terms of customer service and work style. Ask to spend time in the office—for training, for meetings, or to participate in brainstorming.

   • To avoid becoming “out of sight, out of mind,” join as many staff meetings as you can, even if you attend by phone or computer. Ask to participate in on-site meetings with the in-house staff whenever possible, and use this precious “face time” in the office effectively—arrange to see the people who are most important to your career.

6. Exhibit professionalism. This involves the elements of your conduct—your standards and boundaries—that establish you as being ethical, courteous, conscientious, and respectful in your workplace. When you create visibility for yourself, this is what people see first. If you cannot be described as being professional in your workplace, work with your mentor or coach to shift into a more professional style.

7. Use attraction. The theory of attraction is summed up by one sentence from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Creating visibility in your career can be Zen-like. And while that may sound contradictory to all of the information on the previous pages, consider this: You will not be convincing anyone, selling to anyone, or chasing after success. Using the theory of attraction, you draw what you want toward you like a magnet.

   For example, I facilitate several executive networking meetings throughout California each month. The purpose of these meetings is to allow executives and professionals to get together, share contacts, develop relationships, and maintain a sense of connection with others outside of their own organizations—especially when they are in a career transition.

   As a coach, I could easily transform this into a solicitation of coaching clients, but I do not. While I share with the participants what it is that I do, I simply offer myself as a resource for information, contacts, options, and solutions (free). All the participants know that they can contact me anytime, and that I will do my best to connect them to the person, web site, or information that they need. They also know where to go when they want to hire a good coach—and many of them do. I never solicit, I attract.

   This same attraction theory will work for you in creating visibility. Without cajoling, convincing, seducing, or politicking, you can attract people to you by being aware of your audience, by generously sharing knowledge, by authentically supporting others, and by getting your own barriers (needs) out of your way.