A few weeks ago, I attended a professional development seminar. On the first day, the leader of the workshop asked the group — “How many people are guilty of underselling themselves?” Ninety-eight percent of the room raised their hand. Almost every single person in the room.
Here’s the kicker: This wasn’t a room full of recent college grads or a workshop on “how to get over imposter syndrome.” This was a room full of some of the world’s smartest, highly educated, most accomplished leaders.
Can you relate? Whether it’s putting forth a new idea, asking for a promotion, or presenting to a potential customer, we clam up and succumb to the weirdness of “selling” ourselves. We often have this (false) idea that somehow if we have to “sell” ourselves, it makes us less valuable. The reality is that people’s brain space is crowded! Even the best ideas, solutions and people must be compelling enough to get someone’s attention.
If what you have is helpful to your company (or the world), you owe it to yourself and everyone else to get over the weirdness of selling. There are two reasons why our brain gets in the way: