Deah Curry PhD, CPC
Helping introverted solopreneurs
with the anxieties of doing
business in cyberspace
The No Hype Mentor
tm
& Solopreneurs' WorryTamer
tm
Overcoming Introvert Anxiety
taming personal and professional insecurities
A lot of therapists and coaches call themselves introverts as a way of explaining why "self-promotion" is hard for them.
This may be a misunderstanding of what it means to be an introvert.
Being an introvert doesn't necessarily mean you are shy or reluctant to brag about yourself, or show your confidence in your work. It means that you need more quiet and solitude than extroverts to recharge your energies. These are two very different things.
But, it also seems to be true that a lot of therapists are indeed shy, or lacking confidence in how to talk about themselves.
Or, perhaps you take the rules professionals have about boundaries and not disclosing anything about yourself too much to heart when it comes to marketing.
The good news is that marketing doesn't require putting yourself in the spot light. Good marketing is not about telling people how great you are.
It's about finding a compelling way to let people know how you can help them become as great as -- as healed, happy, or whole as -- they want to be.
So when you say you are an introvert, it's more likely that what you are is insecure about letting people know how you can help.
And I can help you with that.
Types of Insecurities that Hamper Marketing
Can't wait? Drop me a line, and I'll get back to you shortly.
A couple years ago I discovered a number of reasons that marketing makes counselors, life coaches and some solo practice naturopathic doctors uncomfortable when they think of marketing themselves. Can you relate to any of these reasons?
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we are insecure about our own expertise or depth of experience
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we have old baggage about bragging about (promoting) ourselves
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we have new baggage about giving promises of cure, or advising / manipulating decisions
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we subconsiously fear getting too much business — what if we can’t handle it?
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we subconsciously fear getting the wrong clients — what if they are dangerous or litigious?
Sounding familiar ? Personal insecurity lies at the root of many business failures for solopreneurs in the healing arts. We have an ingrained lack of confidence in ourselves, always second guessing what we know. And we have an inner critic telling us that it’s being a show off to tout that we’re good enough to help others heal their lives.
We have to get over these discomforts. Business success relies on being able to exude confidence in our ability to help clients achieve the change they seek.
Might you be afraid of your own success? Could you be sabotaging yourself, in order to stay safely invisible? Are you running your business from an irrational fear-based place in your emotional reflexes?
If you are uncomfortable with self-promotion, if talking about your private practice gives you high anxiety, I suggest thinking of marketing as a nutrient that the body and soul of your business needs in order to survive. Just like any other living thing, your business needs the sun to shine on it — or in this case, it needs to be in the light of public attention — in order to grow and thrive.
Start today.
I offer consultation and coaching to help you work through self-sabotaging discomforts, and gain confidence in your business’s marketing strategies.