A series on learning how to market myself.

When I launched my new website last November, I had great intentions to get out there, blog more and shine.

Didn’t do it. I could give you a bunch of excuses, but that’s all they are, excuses.

Then, the New Year hit and I had great intentions. And while I can still say this week qualifies as the new year (heck, it’s January), I haven’t done much.
Give me an F.
Give me an E.
Give me an A.
Give me an R.
What does that spell? FEAR! Fear got in the way of my ability to market myself.

You see, marketing myself is hard. Even though I work to market my clients, help them get the attention they deserve, doing it for ME is a challenge.

When I’ve worked for other companies and nonprofits, I was selling their products and services. I had trust that they would fulfill their brand promise. Even though I’ve been in business for myself for the past eight years, it is different selling my company’s services. As a solopreneur, I’m not just selling my products and services, I’m selling myself. Somehow, fear and doubt creep in.

Getting Over It
I may sound a bit like a broken record for my next few blog posts, but I guess I’m going to try to overcome this fear in a very public way. Like this:

1. Create the plan. Duh. It works for my clients. We set dates, schedule activities and get them done. While I can probably think of a million other things I need to do other than create the plan, I’ve got to make the commitment to myself.
2. Just do it. Going back to the Nike model. I’ve got to get schedule time on my calendar and FORCE myself to take action.
3. Accountability partner. My buddy Joanna Holden and I have been accountability partners for years. We’re both solopreneurs with kids, so we have a lot in common. The last few months, we’ve been on hold a bit. We need to get back at it.
4. Teach. To add fear on top of fear, Richard Roppa and I have committed to teaching a class for the StacyK Academy. Entitled S’marketing, which means smart sales and marketing, the class will help students identify their s’marketing skills (some they didn’t even know they had) and how to use them to grow their businesses. We’ll be talking a lot about fear and your attitude toward marketing and sales in this course. Maybe by teaching, I’ll learn a bit myself! I’m sure I will.

My next few blogs will deal with curing myself of fear of marketing myself. What do you do to overcome the fear you face as an entrepreneur?