Become a Lighthouse
The ocean! Pic from a southern California beach vacation with my hubby and 4 kiddos in March 2024.
Shameless self-promoter, or shining to save ships?
Have you been wanting to grow your career, business, or personal brand, but you struggle to put yourself out there? This one is for you!
Marketer By Day, Coach/Creator By Weekend/Morning
Sometimes I joke that my job is to make things “shiny.” My full-time day job is building a brand for a center at a university: directing a team to manage the website, social media, video production, marketing, communications, etc. My ultimate goal is to help our center grow so that it can positively impact more people.
On the weekends and in the wee morning hours, I also enjoy writing (the slow, old-fashioned, non-chatGPT way) and building a coaching side biz. I have seen WAYYY too many talented creatives and incredible, bootstrappy businesses build cool things that fall to the wayside, just because no one knew they even existed.
Because of that, my mission and core message is to encourage ambitious creatives to build the courage and compassion to “Shine Bright.”
Is it "Shell-fish" to Shine?
The purpose of branding is often misunderstood, and as result, can unfortunately get a super bad rap (or whatever the today’s equivalent of this phrase is… have bad rizz? 🤔)
Recently, I mentioned that I “make things shiny,” and my friend told me that when she heard the word "shiny," all she could think about was the song “Shiny” from the hit Disney movie Moana. In the movie, the gigantic, egotistical, villainous crab Tamatoa wants to be shiny to attract unsuspecting fish to lure them in and eat them.
In that case, being "shiny" was just a clever plot to attract and deceive. Does that mean that shining is actually BAD?
People are often so afraid of attention-seeking and “showboating” that they go too far the other direction, and literally become invisible. Instead of being the giant-egotistical-”look at me!” Tamatoa, they are “Mr. Cellophane” from the musical Chicago. BOTH approaches are problematic, but the good news? Avoiding them is simple.
Service is the Key
What is your reason for wanting people’s attention? If you have something good that will help people’s lives be better, then wouldn’t it be more selfish to NOT tell anyone about it?
I love the scene in Jim Carrey’s version of The Grinch where he is looking through his schedule of all of the bad things he is going to do for the day, and one of them is “Solve world hunger. Tell no one.”
It is actually SUPER evil and selfish to have the ability to help people, and then NOT do it!
What if you saw someone drowning in the pool? Would you NOT jump in and save them, because you are afraid of looking dumb, or splashing a few bystanders?
You Won't Go Overboard
What if I go overboard? What if I am posting too much? Will people get annoyed?
This is similar to the excuse that people give to not eat spinach: “Well, I heard that if you eat too much spinach, it can be really bad for you. I’ll just eat these donuts instead.”
How many people are actually going to go overboard with eating TOO MUCH spinach?
(I guess that technically, it is possible. Once, I saw an elderly man who had literally turned blue from consistently ingesting colloidal silver for decades.)
In general, my guess is that you need to be doing MORE, not less, and your brain is giving you the “Oh no, what if I go overboard?” as an excuse to not take action.
If you are serving and providing value, it is super hard to go overboard with branding. It might take some time to figure things out. You might be splashing around that pool for a bit. Some people might think you are weird or annoying. (Let them! Thanks Mel Robbins.)
And yet, once you start finding and helping those who need you, and focusing more on THEM then on your own fears, you will discover that the effort to share and shine is worth it.
You're Invited!
Do you need a welcoming group and community to be part of? Join my FREE Shine Bright Creatives Community on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/15819050/
It's a private group, so you can start practicing posting in a lower-stakes setting. (You will see your posts show up on your LinkedIn profile with the little group icon, which means that ONLY people in the group can see your posts.)
My dream is that the group will become a place where ambitious creatives can build meaningful connections, start conversations, and share and get feedback on their work. I would love to see you there! :D
