self promotion

I'm going to do it, y'all. I'm going to send out an e-newsletter all about me. Is that totally gross? Is everyone going to hate me? I put this task off for a long, long time. I do not want to market myself. I do not want to end up in your spam folder.

Most self-employed people that I talk to agree that self promotion is really, really hard. I guess there are some people who share one of my professions (the real estate one) for whom this comes naturally, but for most of us, it's awkward and uncomfortable and we really, really don't want to bother you.

I clearly care a lot what you think about me. I do not want to be your cheesy ex-co-worker or high school friend who sends you junk mail all the time. On the other hand, I'm self employed. I create my own work, and I'm my own marketing team. I just have to do it.

I really don't like the word market. How about inform? I'm doing stuff and I want people to know about it. I'm teaching a class outside of square one. I have a workshop coming up. I'm writing this blog. I'm selling houses. If I don't tell people what I'm doing, I have no business, no work, no reason to blog, or to show up for my classes, or to plan workshops, etc., etc. I'll have to go get a real job.

So that's what I've been doing the last couple of days. Organizing contacts. Finding emails. Of course, gmail stores every single email address I've ever communicated with, so my list could be enormous. Then there's facebook and all these people I haven't spoken to in years. It's really hard to decide who to put on the list. I was braver than I thought I would be. If I know you, and I could find your email, you're probably on my list.

Why is it so hard to promote ourselves? I don't have any problem promoting square one. The studio is a few steps removed from me and my own little, fragile ego. If you don't like square one or you remove yourself from the list, there's nothing to take personally. Well, actually, I take it a little personally. But I try to remember that there are a lot of things I don't know. Maybe you moved away. Maybe you're just a little grumpy. Maybe you're getting the email at two addresses. Overall, very few people unsubscribe but a lot of people (way more than half) just don't open the email.

But it will be really different if you don't like me and you unsubscribe from my personal list. If you're not that interested, will you just open the email for one second so it shows it was opened and then delete it? Please? It's really the kind thing to do.

So look for it. You'll probably get it by Friday if you're on the list. If you're not on my list and you want to be, email me. There's nothing I'd love more than to have your permission to send you impersonal emails about my professional life. Well, except maybe getting a personal email in response.

Please be kind. I'll try really hard to make the emails entertaining, and I'll send them infrequently. I promise. And if you write me back, I'll write you back. I want to know what you're doing too. Put me on your list.