“When you create something from your heart, I hope you promote the hell out of it. Shout it from the rooftops. Share it with everyone. Let yourself be seen. And don’t apologise for it.”
Last month I had a journaling masterclass to promote. It was a virtual, ninety minute masterclass and cost £19 to attend. I mentioned it in my newsletter and created one post on Instagram about it. I also mentioned it a few times in my Instagram Stories.
And each time I did I felt icky.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am very proud of that masterclass. I felt I provided a huge amount of information, lots of detail and incredible value for your £19. Yet I still felt icky when it came to promoting it.
This is a masterclass that has come about from sixteen years of experience, from an entire day of creating the slides and me talking and answering questions for what turned out to be an hour and forty five minutes.
So why the ickiness? Well, I had a number of issues going on inside my head:
The belief that people don’t like promotion in their instagram feeds.
The belief I was overcharging and who the hell was I to be charging for my work anyway.
Feeling like a chancer, an imposter.
And a weird, low level feeling that I shouldn’t be taking up space on the Internet. And that I shouldn’t be bothering people with what I’d produced. Even though I’d produced it with those people specifically in mind.
Now I know that if I was giving that masterclass away for free I would not have been feeling that way. I would be saying to myself, if it doesn’t go well that’s fine because it’s not cost anybody to be here.
But as soon as I attached a monetary value to it I felt like a greedy capitalist. Yet all I was doing was charging for my time, skills and experience. Why is that so bad?
So when I saw Lisa’s quote above and related Instagram post yesterday (and the comments) I was delighted. Because it meant that it wasn’t just me who felt uncomfortable promoting my creative work. It was something many creatives felt. And because of that I felt understood and that I wasn’t crazy, or a loser or whatever other ridiculous, horrible description of myself I had.
I think there are a number of reasons for my ickiness:
1. In the age of social media and the internet so much is given away for ‘free’. Newspapers we used to hand over money for are now available without paying anything simply by tapping our screens. Articles in magazines are available online too. We can amuse ourselves for hours reading blog posts and watching videos. We can listen to music without paying anything to the artist. All at no monetary cost to ourselves. So when it comes to selling things for actual cash people aren’t used to it - or at least you assume they aren’t.
2. As a woman and as an unconfident creative I frequently undervalue myself. I undervalue my skills, my experience, my knowledge. A fellow writer and Instagram friend told me some weeks ago I was undercharging for my services. She was absolutely right. But the question who would buy from me if I raised my prices immediately rushed into my head. I felt like I was positioning myself as the Aldi or Lidl of the creative world. It was safer to do that. People came to me because I was cheap. I didn’t have enough confidence to say I offered a quality service or product. Because what if they didn’t think I was offering something of value?
When I wrote my workbook, Journaling Your Goals, instead of shouting about it from the rooftops - this was the culmination of months and months of work after all, I very quietly added it to my website and said nothing about it for a while. To promote it would be to take a huge step out of my comfort zone. So I stayed where I was: cosy and safe.
In Lisa Olivera’s post on Instagram she goes on to say that we (women particularly) “are taught to be modest (aka quiet), humble (aka completely decentering our gifts and art), giving (aka don’t you dare expect compensation of any kind for your emotional labour) and grateful (aka give and don’t ask for anything in return). We’re taught that self-promotion is conceited or self-absorbed.”
When I first created an account on Twitter back in the day I would follow a lot of published writers. Writers who had gained their publishing deal before social media was a thing. And the amount of times I saw these writers mentioning they had a new book out and then apologised for mentioning it was huge.
The ridiculous thing was that some people would still object to being ‘sold to’. But if you like their tweets and their writing surely it’s a good thing to hear if you like their tweets then you might like their new novel, too.
During the early days of the pandemic and associated lockdown I even saw authors criticised for promoting their books during that time. As though authors don’t need to sell books and make money from their work during a pandemic. Because obviously writing and creativity is not a proper job.
I know I have absorbed some of these rules. The passive aggressive tweets from people complaining about self-published authors promoting their books on Twitter, the openly aggressive tweets telling people that Twitter is not a space for advertising but for conversation. The apologetic stance of authors (and other creatives, it isn’t just limited to writers!) who mention their books.
Funnily enough in The Confident Creative Club the other day I was talking to one of the members about how many books she’d published. The next one is your third, right? I asked her. ‘No, she replied, it’s my fourth.’
I knew about her first two books. But had no idea her third had come out. And she admitted that she didn’t talk about it. Self-promotion was just one step too far out of her comfort zone. I understood. Because I could relate.
The ridiculous thing is, after all my doubts about promoting my masterclass, just a few days after I’d hosted it I received a number of DMs saying they were disappointed they missed it.
‘You need to promote it more,’ I was told. And she was right. I do. Because, guess what? People are not on social media all the time (and if they are then they have to expect some repetition!) People are busy, people might see your promotion whilst cooking dinner or watching television and think that they’ll come back to it and then forget. And also people don’t buy things the first time they see the information. Apparently there is a rule of seven - you have to see an advert or a promotion seven times before you make a decision to buy.
So, next time you have a book to promote, a course, a piece of art, photographs, a magazine - even a newsletter, a blog post, a video - then don’t just mention it once. And you don’t just have to have an advert or an Instagram post dedicated to it. Talk about it as part of your day. Share the behind the scenes, tell your audience why you’ve created it, and how it’s progressed from concept to an actual product.
Be proud of your work. You’ve worked hard. And show it to the world.
Are you struggling with your creative confidence?
The Confident Creative Club is for anyone who feels there is something creative inside them but is struggling to find it due to fear, lack of self-belief, guilt, comparison or procrastination.
It's for writers, photographers, artists, crafters and lots more (even if you feel you cannot call yourself one of those yet). It's for people like you. Yes, you.
