Marketing Self Assessment
Now that I’ve confessed my fear, it’s time to move beyond it. Whenever I’m down in the dumps, it helps me to look back at the things I’ve done well. So step 2 of Overcoming My Fear of Marketing Myself is to identify my marketing skills and strengths.

As part of the prep work for the StacyK Academy S’marketing course, Richard Roppa and I have developed a S’marketing Skills Inventory. The goal is for class participants to recognize the skills they have. Throughout the course, they’ll determine how to best use their skills to meet their marketing goals.

Here’s a sneak peek at just SOME of the things in our evaluation. (We can’t give it all away).

Rank your skills from 1-5, 5 being the best.

• Listening                  1         2         3         4         5
• Authenticity             1         2         3         4         5
• Public speaking       1         2         3         4         5
• Self motivation        1         2         3         4         5
• Time Mgmt              1         2         3         4         5
• Confidence               1         2         3         4         5
• Writing                     1         2         3         4         5

Determine what  you are willing to do (and NOT to do) to market yourself: 

• Speaking
• Blogging
• Networking
• Social media
• Direct mail
• Email campaigns

What tools do you have in place to market yourself?

• Website
• LinkedIn profile
• Facebook business page
• Business card
• Other __________________________

Taking stock of the skills I have gives me a great starting point to develop a marketing plan that works for me and my business. For example, I know I’m a good writer—I even get paid to do it. I need to schedule time to write my own stuff (like this blog post). I also know I’m a good teacher. I’ve taught courses for the CAPE program at SMU and in a previous life, for the Center for Nonprofit Management, to name a few. That teaching translates to public speaking where I can raise my profile, educate my audience on marketing and communications topics and hopefully get more clients.

If you are struggling to market yourself, as well, take some time to evaluate your skills and determine where you can apply them. Good luck!