Stop Your Fear of Self Promotion - FOR GOOD.

Not learning how to promote yourself will cost you a lot of opportunities as an artist. And I know you already know this, but maybe something you haven't thought about is how this could cause you to quit altogether. And unfortunately, I've seen this happen, and likely it happens because you put all this pressure on yourself to become a professional, but you don't do the thing you know you need to do to reach your goal. And the real question becomes, like, how do we silence this fear of self promotion long enough to take a step in the right direction and really just get used to doing the thing? So today I want to offer an exercise that I've done for a long time now that is proven to help curb these fears that you have. This way, when you're maybe getting ready to make a post about something that you're going to sell or offer, or, you know, just show up in general, you've got something to fall back on. Because obviously it's not about never being afraid. We're always going to have fears that comes up, but how do we just learn to work alongside it? But before we get into that exercise, we do have to talk about the biggest fear of all of them, because this is the underlying fear that really keeps us stuck the most. What if you fail? You didn't know we were going to get right into the weeds, did you? So to me, failure is like that roommate that you had in college that you would get so pissed off at because they never did the dishes or like pick their stuff up off the floor. And the more they left their stuff around the apartment, the more mad you got and the madder you got, the more you, like, ended up taking it out on your friends, maybe your girlfriend, your boyfriend, whatever. And your teachers. Like, everybody got the brunt of it, maybe even including this roommate. But you never kicked them out because you needed that rent money, right? And your fear of failure works very similarly. Like, the more you let it just stick around, the more it shows up and impacts everything else that you do. This may look like frustration. You may feel unmotivated and feel like, oh, I just need some self care. When really, you know, it's just the fact that you're like, letting fear keep you trapped. And the sad part is that I've seen this take a lot of artists away from their career. I've seen people fail. And to me, failure is just, you know, giving up simply because they let this fear keep them still long enough that they actually believed, like, yeah, this probably won't ever work, and so they give up. And the professional artist understands that this resistance is just part of the game. You know, it's what we all deal with. Steven Pressfield says that when we feel this resistance, we should actually move towards it, that it's a sign that we're on the right track. I remember a point where I left the touring lifestyle and was getting into kind of doing my own thing and even starting this business that I have now and thinking, like, maybe I should just give up. But I had to ask myself, like, what do you want to see your kids do? How do you want to empower them to, like, face their fears and step into the things that they feel called to do? Because resistance is going to hit them, too. So it just kind of opened my eyes because I knew that I wanted them to at least see me try. And even if I don't reach the level of success that the world deems as successful, at least I would have shown them how to find their own version of success in my own journey. So I'm sure for you, there's been times when you've tried to learn something, but it didn't go as planned, but you likely did it anyway. And that's because failure is not something going not as planned. Right? Like, it's. That's just something going not as planned is just, like, part of the process. It doesn't necessarily mean you suck at something. Sometimes it does mean you suck at something. And sometimes you just have to remind yourself, like, okay, but everybody sucks at this thing. You know, when they show up the first time. That kind of failure just means, really, you're doing the work that most people never do. And the more that I've taken this mindset on, the more that I've seen myself continue to incrementally do more and more of the things that I'm afraid of, despite being afraid. And that just creates this evidence that says, like, I'm capable of doing it. And my success continues to grow. My success, like, the way I see it, not like success the way the world sees it. And we do this inside my community as well. And I see artists do things like selling more of their work because they're not afraid of, like, the value that they offer. They grow their audiences because they're willing to step out and actually show up as themselves. And they become more confident in the relationships that they have. And that's because they're seeing every day that they're doing the things that matter most to them. And I'm here to tell you, like, a lot of times, the things that matter most to us. We don't do simply because fear gets in the way, but the fear will still show up. And when it does, how do we handle it? So here's an exercise, and I want you to do this with me right now.

And I want you to do this every time fear creeps in for you. This could look like, hey, I wonder if my friends are gonna make fun of me, like, when I post this thing. Or, I wonder if I've got my hook right on this. Maybe I should just save it and not do anything. Or, you know, nobody's gonna buy this anyway. Like, why should I even try? Now I'm gonna say it. Like, my coach says it to me. I can't do the push ups for you. So I hope that you'll actually do this exercise with me. Because getting information and doing nothing with it is like burying 20 bucks and hoping it grows a fricking money tree. So if you're worried about someone walking in the room, that's okay. Like, find a quiet spot. Because the last thing I want you to do is to look back at this a year from now and be like, I'm exactly where I was because I'm not taking any more action Now. I learned this exercise from different coaches that I've worked with. And I just want to say, like, I'm not a medical professional. If you have stuff that comes up for you, you might want to take it to your therapist or your counselor or your coach. And I highly suggest that you have one of those things. So question number one. What are you trying to accomplish when this fear shows up? And there may be multiple things, but for now, just pick one. Because when you do this exercise later, you can always do it with other things that are coming up. Are you trying to make a social media post? Are you trying to show up on camera? Are you offering your art to your followers? Like, whatever it is, write it down. Now, for some of you, you may not see it right away. You may have to close your eyes and just kind of picture it. And once it comes to you, whatever the first thing is, write that one down. So now I want you to close your eyes, if you haven't already. And I want you to ask yourself, what am I afraid of when I show up to do this thing? Are you afraid somebody might deny you? Are you afraid that you'll look dumb? Are you afraid that people will make fun of you once you find it? Open your eyes, write it down. Now close your eyes again, and I want you to ask yourself, what does it mean if that happens to you, if you look dumb, does that mean that you're not good at what you do or that you're not a professional? If you show up on camera and someone trolls you, like, will that mean that you are dumb, that you're not capable of doing this thing? If you offer your art and someone denies it, rather than it meaning they're just not ready for it, it might feel like it means that you're not actually an artist. So once you find that thing, that meaning, I want you to write that down as well. When you write that last one down, I want you to write it down as a belief statement. So, for instance, when I show up online and someone makes fun of me, it means that I'm dumb, right? And already, like, this should sort of take the wind out of the sails a little bit, because we're looking at this from a very practical standpoint. But that doesn't negate the fact that these are real fears. Like, these are things that are coming up right now. I want you to take that belief statement that you just wrote down, and I want you to say it out loud. And I want you to say it out loud and then take a deep breath in, close your eyes, and exhale. So, for instance, when I show up online and someone trolls me, it means that I'm dumb. And then I want you to take a deep breath in from your belly and then an audible exhale.

Then I want you to do it again. When I show up online and someone trolls me, it means that I'm dumb.

I want you to do that five times in a row. So feel free to pause the video and do that part of the exercise. So how do you feel right now after having said that out loud? Write it down. Like, is there a place in your body that you're feeling something? Could you describe that feeling in a certain way? And if so, like, what would that description be? Just again, pause the video and just take a little time to journal that out. Now, the hope here is that maybe, again, it feels a little lighter, but maybe it doesn't. There's no wrong here. It's just that we're just taking an opportunity to zoom out and look at the statement as a whole, the real deep belief underneath this fear. And now what we want to do is kind of forward. Think what it could be instead. Okay, so for the next step, I want you to imagine that your success was inevitable, that you have no other choice but to achieve the thing that you want to achieve as a creative person. Right. So if that was your mindset, then what would this action that you're trying to do mean about you? So, for instance, if you make your social media post, could that mean that you're a professional who shows up for people because you know that what you have to offer is important to the world? Or if you showed your face on camera, could that mean that you're brave enough to inspire others to show up in the world in all kinds of different ways? Or if you made an offer for your art, could it mean that you see the value in your work and that every time you offer it, it's an opportunity to bring someone else immense value? So take a second and think about that. What would it mean if you showed up and did this action? And once you have that, I want you to write it as I am blank. So, for example, I am an amazing artist and see the value in my art every time I offer it. It's an opportunity to bring someone else to immense value. Now, in the same way as you did before, I want you to speak this statement out loud five times, taking a big belly breath in and then an audible exhale out between each statement. So don't be afraid to read it off the page if you need to. I'm an amazing artist and see the value in my art every time I offer it. It's an opportunity to bring someone immense value.

I am an amazing artist and see the value in my art every time I offer it is an opportunity to bring someone else immense value. Five times. Right? So take the time. Pause the video. Do that now. Okay. Now, what's changed for you? What do you feel currently? Where do you feel that in your body? And if you could describe the feelings just like you did before, what would that description be? What has changed for you? And whether or not you feel a big change is totally okay. The point here is that you're taking the time to kind of look beneath the hood of these things that you believe about yourself and the actions you take and trying to flip those beliefs. What I want to offer is that this takes commitment, like you're literally carving new neural pathways in your brain. So if you've been living in this fear and this other belief, in order to create a new belief based around this action, it's going to take some time. So be patient with yourself, show up and do this. I do these kinds of exercises basically every day now, you know, give or take a few. And I give myself a lot of grace if I miss it. But I also notice a big difference when I don't do them. And listen, like, you can choose to believe the positive thing or the negative thing. Like that choice is really yours. You know, either way, you're telling yourself a story. And so I just want to ask you which story is serving you the best, right? Which one's going to get you to move forward? Because the stories we tell ourselves always determine the actions we take right, or the ones we don't. And speaking of those actions, you know, a lot of these actions that usually fear shows up in has to do with marketing your art, you know, your creativity, building your creative business. I truly believe there's no better time to be an artist and a creative that's trying to build their thing than right now. I really don't the opportunity that the Internet brings. And I believe more and more people are craving authenticity. And you know, so there's a real thirst for people like you who are heartfelt creatives that are wanting to show up and really serve people with the work they make. And the problem is real. You know, most artists are just putting themselves out there and trying to find people and convince them to buy the work that they make. But in the spirit of, you know, shifting our mindset, like, what would it look like if you knew there were people out there that wanted what you have? You just had to make yourself more findable. Just a cool little stat. Like there are 1.35 billion English speaking people in the world alone. And you only need to find 200 people a year with a $500 product to make $100,000. Right? That's less than.00002% of just English speaking people throughout the world. Like that's all you need to reach a year. Crazy. But you can't just lead with sales. Obviously you have to find the people first. Otherwise it'd be like being at a park or something and you're standing in front of a park bench and you're just constantly talking about the thing you make, hoping somebody like, we have to do things in the right order. So in this video I go over the flip system, which is the system that I've used to help artists grow their audiences and their income by building out their personal brands. So click here and I'll walk you through how to come up with your marketing plan for the next three months.