You Have to Keep Reminding People You Exist

We also feel weird about self promotion.

Back when I was still in college, I was walking around a museum gift shop in London and picked up an orange and purple book titled “What They Didn’t Teach You in Art School”

Great, exactly what I need, a book about all the things I'm not being taught with this expensive degree. Instead, this $10 book supposedly has all of the answers I need. I started flipping through it and read this quote on one of the pages:

“You have to keep reminding people you exist."

Next thing you know, I'm pulling out money at the cash register.

There are so many feelings that come to mind when I think about self-promotion: Doubt, vanity, excitement, and wondering how you’ll be perceived just to name a few. Despite how reluctant I can be to put this quote into practice, the truth is simple: people can only care about your work if they know it exists.

This isn’t meant to evoke an existential crisis. It’s not about being forgotten as a person or a creative. Self-promotion is about being proud enough of what you do to invite people to support it and celebrate it with you. Some beautiful passion projects are made in the dark, yes. And, yes, there’s something sacred about keeping a project to yourself until it’s ready to be shown. But when exactly something is ready is often the hardest to decide. Nothing is ever perfect, and at some point, you have to let your project step outside into the real world and be confident that it will land on its feet.

While at the University of Michigan, I was a part of a program called optiMize. There, our boss Jeff Sorensen always told this story about how important it is to talk about what you’re working on. He joked that when optMize began, he would talk about it any chance he got: to his neighbors, his peers, and the local Traders Joe’s employees. Along with talking about his project, he would actively tell people about his dreams, one being that he wanted to work with Jessica Alba and her business The Honest Company. One time, while sharing this with someone, they mentioned they knew her COO and could put him in contact with them. You can imagine how the rest of the story goes without me having to butcher it. In Jeff’s words, the moral of the story is “even if the first ten people you tell about your idea roll their eyes or discourage you, you never know if the 11th person will be the one who could have helped you.”

I say all that to demonstrate that the more people you talk to about your projects, the more people can support it, celebrate it, and champion it. Jeff's story, like so many others, only happened because he was brave enough to be vocal about what he was working on.

kendramorous

A post shared by kendra austin 🍒 (@kendramorous)

Promotion is something we’ve struggled with for As You Are. Between Substack posts and podcast episodes, I often find myself thinking “Haven’t we already promoted this enough?” It can sometimes feel like you’re begging people to pay attention to you. But the truth is, despite how many of us may feel, most people in our circles don't actually know anything substantial about our projects. At best, many have only viewed a promotional post for half a second on an IG story.

So I’m encouraging us all to consistently share the things we’re working on, in person and on the internet. Mention it in that conversation with a new friend, post it to the Facebook void so your distant relatives and old classmates can support you, leave a comment about it on your fave Substack As You Are, and talk about it at work or with a hot date. Remind people you exist and that all the things swirling around in your brain have led you to create something you’re proud of.

Does this resonate with you? How do you feel about self promotion?

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