Self promotion for the heart centered soul

Self promotion can seem like the scariest concept for my tribe of Gentle hearted Soulpreneurs. 

I have had to battle some MAMMOTH inner demons to come to a place of 'relative' comfort around Self Promotion. 

Here are 5 Tips that have really helped me to understand this:

​1) YOU ARE NOT ALONE
OMG you are so not alone Sister! Nearly every single one of my clients deals with there own "Self Promotion Blocks" in one way or another.

I've listed the most common blocks that I have heard with clients and also blocks I've had myself to let you see that you are truly not alone......

I'm not enough

• I'm not intelligent enough/wise enough/knowlegable enough/qualified enough
• I'm too fat/ugly/wrinkly ...blah blah blah (Read: Body shame for women is one of the most common ways to keep us from shining)
• I'm too old or too young
• I'm not the right race
• I didn't have the right education
• I didn't grow up in the right place
• I didn't have the right family.

What will people think of me?

• What will my family and friends think of me?
• People will think that I'm "up my self" and an "attention seeker"
• I will lose all of my friends if I am too big and too shiny and too bright
• I will make people feel uncomfortable.
• People won't like me.
• I will be rejected.
• My friends will leave me.
• If I share my heart on a social media platform Great Auntie Nelly will wonder what the hell has happened to me!

Random Self-defeating talk and feel free to add your own here!

• I'm not as good as that skinny, pretty, girl on instagram who seems to have a perfect life.
• I will never be as good as that person so I may as well not even start. 
• Everyone already knows what I have to say and there is no room in the market.
• It has all been done before, so I may as well go and just get a job
• Who do I think I am to do this?
• My Mum/Dad/Teacher/Auntie/Husband/Daughter thinks that I am a fool for trying so I may as well give up.
• I don't have the support to do this.
• Because of something that happened many years ago, I know that I can't do this.
• I'm on my own so I don't have any support. 
• I've tried so many things in the past and they have all failed, so why will this  be any different. 

Perfectionism - Procrastiperfectionism

• I'm not perfect so I may as well not even try! 
• I don't have the right equipment so there is no point
• I was never any good at writing so I may as well not blog
• Until I have all of the facts, and have everything mapped out until an inch of it's life, there is just no point in me starting.
• When I have completely become perfect like an Angel, then maybe people will want to hear what I have to say.

Did anything resonate here?
May be you have your own list!

You get the picture though don't you honey...the self-talk around Self-Promotion can be pretty heavy and pretty self-defeating. 

So what can we do about this:

STEP ONE -  Acknowledge the feelings and thoughts: 

Rather then suppress these feelings, or label them as 'bad'....give yourself time to allow these feelings to surface to the top of your mind, and give them some air time. 

To enable you to acknowledge the feelings, or the shadow, it is sometimes helpful to have an Intuitive Soul-Biz Mentor like me - who can quickly discern your self sabotage and bring gentle, playful, light and depth to this. 

By joining a group like the Superstars group you also get to hear not only your own self-sabotage but also see other people's shadow mirrored back to you. 

 Basically let those inner self-sabotage thoughts about Self Promoting be acknowleged so that they can't run the show.  

STEP TWO - SHIFT THE ENERGY
*Tapping is brilliant to shift the energy. You can easily make up your own script by just tapping as you say your 'story' out loud. Let all of those feelings be heard with no judgement.  You may even find your self giggling at the absurdity of them.

*Acknowledge that these feelings are coming from a place of Fear and the Ego voice which is set up to keep us safe. 

*Realise that these thoughts are often where you go under stress. You can acknowledge that they are there but not live in 'fear town' all the time. 

*Come up with a positive affirmation to use so that you can own your new energy. Some that I like are

"It is safe for me to shine"
"As I shine, I give others permission to also shine"
"It is my time to shine"
"It is my light that frightens me"

STEP THREE - REALISE IT ISN'T ABOUT YOU
When I feel fear about self promoting, I often put my hand on my heart and say  "Gilly Godward, it is NOT about you"

This helps to take me out of the ego voice (above) and focus instead on sharing what I know to help others. 

Just by shifting the focus to thinking that there is just 'one person that I can help' changes the energy. 

I'd love for you to try this and see what happens. 

STEP FOUR - FIND YOUR HAPPY PLACE WITH PROMOTION
Finding your happy place with self-promotion is crucial to success for the heart-centered soulpreneur. 

There are a million ways to get your message out there then find what feels really comfortable to you, and do it consistently. 

Some of you will feel most comfy sharing your light by blogging, others by facebook lives, or youtube, instagram, linkedin, networking groups, newspaper print, advertorials, television, magazine articles. For some people it's in the flesh networking, for others (like me) that is their idea of hell in a handbag.

For me I tend to get overwhelmed by big crowds of people and have trouble remembering peoples name so networking groups aren't the best. 

However I find it effortless to do a facie live, and love facebook so tend to do most of my promo there. It's just easy to me.

In saying that, I am making myself do more of the in person networking as I love challenging myself and growing. Basically I approach it as an exercise in self-development and have become a little more comfortable in the discomfort. 

STEP 5 - CONGRATULATE YOURSELF EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
Every time I do any form of self promotion I give myself a high five. 

As a solopreneur there is often no one to congratulate you apart from yourself, so just make sure that you do it a LOT.

Have a couple of great friends that can also give you a high five to help you celebrate overcoming those (very real) blocks to self promotion.

Come and join us in the Superstars Group so that you have a group of awesome soulpreneurs to cheer you along, and remind you of your greatness when you have forgotten it. 

Lastly, have FUN WITH THE EXPERIENCE. 

Many others have gone before you, and if you talk to them, they have ALL felt the same way. 

It's easy to look at other successful women and think "Oh it's easy for them", but believe me girlfriend from all of the amazing women that I have coached over the years, I know that self-promotion is one of the hardest things of all.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this and for you to comment below.

Lots of hugs and love......

p.s) Tell me when you have done a self-promo and I will do an air high five with you gorgeous Superstar! 


Love
​Gilly XXXX