a website & community for women who write & blog
Learn how to dress like a fashion blogger. Is this on your list of goals for 2017? If so, then you don’t want to miss next week’s See Jane Write event. And you don’t have to be in Birmingham to attend!
At the risk of sounding old and out-of-touch, I must admit to you that I didn’t sign up for Snapchat until about a year ago because for the longest I thought it was just an app teenagers used for sexting. And even though I now have an account, I think I’ve used it twice.
Snapchat is not my jam.
When I was a young girl I was terribly shy. Though I could be relatively outgoing when around close family members and friends, just the thought of speaking in front of people I didn’t know intimidated me.
Fast forward to adulthood: Today I am a teacher and a freelance journalist and someone who’s often paid to speak to large audiences on topics ranging from blogging and business to writing and women’s empowerment.
So how do you overcome a fear of speaking in public? By speaking in public!
You can’t talk yourself out of a fear. You have to feel the fear and do it anyway, again and again, and eventually the fear will melt away.
Most days I pose a question to the ladies of the See Jane Write Facebook group designed to help us get to know one another better. Recently, I asked, “What are your superpowers?”
For mine I listed “teaching, writing, inspiring people, connecting people and cultivating community.” One superpower I failed to mention, though, is my knack for building buzz.
Earlier this year when Southern Living magazine included me in its list of Innovators Changing the South, I wrote a blog post about how I believe I’ve received recognition such as this and a number of other awards and opportunities because I’m good at self-promotion.
I know that for many people, especially women and especially writers, self-promotion feels dirty. Perhaps it even feels selfish. But you’ve got it all wrong.
If you have something truly valuable to offer others, you’re actually being selfish if you don’t promote it!
If your blog post could make someone’s day, if your book could change someone’s life, if your business could solve someone’s biggest problem, why would you keep that to yourself?
Self-promotion seems dirty because it’s usually done in a pushy, forceful, and slimy way. But despite how it sounds, “self-promotion” shouldn’t be simply about promoting yourself. It should be about letting someone know that you have something they need and that you want to help.
Perhaps you’ve gone so long shunning self-promotion that now you’re not even sure where to start. No worries. I got you, girl!
On Saturday, July 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I’ll be hosting a FREE workshop at DISCO on how to build buzz.
In the wake of the killings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, the Dallas police officers, and others, the past week has drained us all emotionally, spiritually, and perhaps even physically. I do believe that as writers we are to use our words to speak out against injustice. We are to use our writing to help bring about change. We are to speak our minds, even if our voices shake.
But I know that as humans, sometimes tragedy leaves us speechless. Sometimes we just can’t find the words. Sometimes we’re left metaphorically paralyzed by the pain we feel from all the madness around us.
This is why I believe that we must not neglect self-care, even in such a time as this.