I think this Post It pretty much says it all.
“Walk around the house like a fucking champion.“
When it comes to your business and even your personal life, you have to be confident in yourself: what you are doing, what you are making, and all of that.
Confidence promotes positivity and growth. Its good for your business and for you.
This is not an invitation for you to walk around like you are God’s gift. But you also shouldn’t walk around with your head down, mumbling about how much your life sucks and how you’ll never amount to anything. Trust me. No one wants to hear that.
So why I am talking about this? Because, when it comes to your business, it pays to be confident (not cocky).
Don’t believe me? Here’s an example. Your hand sewn pillows are featured on a popular home decor blog and you see a big boost in traffic and a handful of sales as well. You’re naturally excited about the feature, so after sending out a proper thank you to the person who wrote about your work, you send out a tweet to your followers. It says something like, “Thank you to @homedecor_awesomeness for featuring my hand sewn pillows today. They’re going fast if anyone interested in picking up one of the last few: [shop url]” **Of course, you only what to say something like this if its true! Don’t lie. People will find out, and you will look silly.
Okay now, that tweet not only goes out to all of your followers, but it can also be seen by any of @homedecor_awesomeness followers who visit their twitter page. So, its being seen by lots of eyes. And that is good. This will undoubtedly lead to a little more attention for you and your business. Why? Because as much as we may hate to admit it, people (just like you and me) like buying things that other people like too. Its human nature. That’s how trends start: a few people decide they like something and before you know it, more and more people start to like it too. I am not saying this works every time, but then again I can’t think of many cases that would prove this theory wrong.
If nothing else, you have peaked at least one person’s interest enough for them to click on your shop link. Maybe more than one. Maybe even 60, 70, 100 people click your link, and that turns into a sale. A sale that you got by tooting your own horn (in a non-douchey way) and having confidence in what you do.
It’s perfectly okay to do this. In fact, you absolutely should! If you don’t tell people your business rocks, who will? If you’ve been featured on a site you admire, mentioned in a magazine, just found out you’ve landed a speaking engagement, or anything else along those lines (no matter how large or small), you should feel free to announce it. Where? Well that depends on where your customers are. If you have a blog, that’s a great place to make a mention. Your shop profile or about page, facebook fan page, and your biz twitter account are great places too. Why? Because people like buying from shops and sites that are popular or that have some kind of street-cred. Its true.
Just a little something to remember: You don’t want to be yelling from the rooftops everyday. So give it a rest every once in a while because it can start to sound egotistical (and annoying) if it gets to be too much.
Bonus Reason for Keeping Track of your Accomplishments this Way: When you are having a bad day or you get a bad review, take a look at your past accomplishments that you’ve tweeted out (or facebooked, etc) and it’ll cheer you up.
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image via This Isn’t Happiness
26 comments | Click here to reply
So true Jessalin >> “Part of being confident is not only promoting yourself, but also having the courage to reach out to your customers, fellow artists, and bloggers. To engage in the community…”
papernstitchCouldn’t have put it any better myself.
-Brittni
Part of being confident is not only promoting yourself, but also having the courage to reach out to your customers, fellow artists, and bloggers. To engage in the community and feel that you belong there is much easier said than done! It is a growing process, in my mind, that builds with each sale and each mistake….
Thanks for the attention to this Brittni!
JessalinI agree in all points and I think that without the shoutouts sometimes nothing seems to happen anyway. Twitter and Facebook toots are very important to get noticed since the blog or etsy world is so big. having confidence is important and we should be all proud of ourselves for what we accomplish every day.
louHello,Brittni, thank you for posting about confidence. I believe a healthy dose of confidence is important for any type of business, interaction, everyday communication in order to be successful. However, I also think that the level and ability to toot our own horn is given by family upbringing and due growing up/being exposed to different cultures (i.e. some cultures seem to be more skillful in that area). Have a nice day. Veronika from Prague
VeronikaGreat advice.
Lauren CrawfordI am just starting up my own business and have begun test trading in my own store in a local mall. Do all your advice, especially keeping track of your accomplishments if you are having a bad day is great advice.
Thank you Sanja. I am really thrilled to hear that you are enjoying these posts. I have a great time writing them.
papernstitch-Brittni
I love how Your posts are always so thoughtful and honest. You bring up a lot of the universal issues that no one seems to talk about. Thank You for that!
SanjaMy pleasure Crystal. I just read your post about perfect getting in the way of good, and I wanted to tell you that I loved what you wrote. I had no idea that the majority of Dutch women worked only part-time (which I know was not the point of the article, but nonetheless).
papernstitch-Brittni
Great post! It’s so important to be confident online–but definitely good to make sure you’re mixing it up and not just tooting your own horn. Thanks for encouraging people to keep it balanced!
CrystalReally glad to hear that you enjoyed this article Emily. You have a lot to be confident about! Your illustrations and handmade items are so cool.
papernstitch-Brittni
Thank you for this article! It’s easy to have a bad day and feel sorry for yourself. But when good things happen, we should be proud! After all, this is why we’re doing it in the first place, right?!? We create to feel good. And when others feel good about what we make, then all the better!
emily bThanks for all the great comments everyone! Van touched on something that I wasn’t able to fit in this post: sharing the love and giving others a shout out every now and then is DEFINITELY a good thing to do. If for no other reason, karma alone is worth doing this.
papernstitch-Brittni
Agree with the whole post. It helps to balance things by shouting your friend’s accomplishments from the rooftops, too. Share valuable information and perspectives from peers in your niche. This will diversify your blog content (so it’s not all “me”, “me”, “me”!) and help you connect with other bloggers in your niche.
VanWhether it’s about my day job, Etsy shop or goal to get into an awesome graduate program, I sometimes need a little reminder to tell myself that I am successful, awesome and can accomplish whatever I want to!
Thanks for the pick-me-up!
SashaTrue that. 😉
becka @ life as an artistpreneurThe sticky note made me smile and your advice gave me a boost. Thanks!
velojoythanks for this, brittni – I am one of the “mousy” people that Mai mentioned, and I’ve been having a hard time promoting myself without being too over-bearing…still trying to figure things out and find a balance between getting out there and being myself…this helped a bit…and thanks Mayi for that lovely quote!
LaurenCouldn’t agree more Mai. Well said.
papernstitchWow, this was a good post. Love that quote by Mayi too. We really DO need to be confident in what we do, but there is definitely a balance and you can easily have too much of a good thing! I think we can all recall irritating people that do nothing but brag all the time, as well as those “mousey” folks who trudge around with their heads hung low with no self-esteem. Neither is a good place to be! So be confident, but thoughtful of others too.
MaiSo well put….thank you for this post!
JulieGreat quote Mayi. Thanks for sharing it!
papernstitchi totally agree with bragging in a non-douchy way. there is nothing wrong with shinning like we’re all meant to.
which reminds me of why i love this quote by mandela so much: “We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”.
Mayi Carles @ HeartmadeThanks for the comments ladies! Michele- your work is amazing! You absolutely should be tooting your own horn. I can’t imagine you sounding douchey (sp?). No one will think that. I promise.
papernstitch-Brittni
You are absolutely right!
EvelynGreat article. I forget too often that it’s okay to toot my own horn once in awhile, and I admit, I don’t really know how to do it in a way that doesn’t seem douchy.
Thanks for the tips and tools!
michele mauleI love your last suggestion! It’s always nice to have a pick-me-up on those not-so-awesome day.
Natalee Lopez