Keep Calm and Brag On

Keep Calm and Brag On

I’ve never been the best at talking myself up. As a shy little girl, I sort of faded into the background everywhere. I didn’t like to speak up, I didn’t like to draw attention to myself. As I got older, I got a little bit better. Competing in beauty pageants really helped open me up to that, because I learned to speak to and befriend complete strangers, I learned to walk with confidence on a stage, and I learned how answer interview questions with a strong voice and eye contact. But I’m still a shy girl. I’m still quiet, especially in large groups. A lot of times I use humor to cover that up – who hasn’t heard that one before?

At this point in my life, I am self-employed. I am an author. I’m doing what I love. While I would love to shout that from the rooftop every day, I still don’t want to call that attention to myself. With the way social media is today, it’s easy to do. A simple post, a Facebook status, heck, a selfie. But I don’t want to look like “that girl” who does nothing but brag about herself. Where’s the line?

Before I quit my job, when people would ask what I did for a living I said I worked at a hospital. End of story. I was afraid I was going to come off looking like I was bragging or I thought I was better than someone else if I started listing all my other activities. If my husband was around, he would be the one saying, “But she also writes books and runs a publishing company” and open up that discussion. When I get asked what I do for a living now, I’m proud to say that I’m self-employed and what I do. But more than that, I’ve realized that I need to do that. I need to tell people what I do and stop hiding in that shell. Why? Because I need to earn my paycheck, and I do that by writing books, selling books, and marketing books for myself and other authors. I need people to know what I do, I need to talk myself up, I need to sell myself. Before, I had the steady paycheck of my day job to fall back on. Now that I’ve been given this amazing opportunity to do what I love full-time, I need to constantly keep that motivation up and that fire within me. I need to tell my hygienist while she’s cleaning my teeth that I have books for sale on Amazon (she bought them – yay!). I need to tell my new financial manager that I’m author (he bought them – yay!). I need to utilize social media to my benefit so I can keep doing what I’m doing and still allow us to pay the mortgage and feed our dog. It’s been an interesting self-journey to watch me continue to grow throughout the years, to gain more confidence in myself and be able to proudly talk about my accomplishments without feeling like I’m shining a Beyonce-sized spotlight on me. I give a lot of that credit to my amazing friends and family, who support me and help talk me up as well. And of course, to the virtual world that I’m a part of. I couldn’t ask for anything more from all my friends out there. So while I know I’ll continue to struggle to talk myself up and put myself out there, I also know that I can do it. It might make me uncomfortable and sometimes I might rein it in when I think I’m being too braggy (whoops, authors using non-words!) but maybe there will be a day where it comes more naturally to me. Regardless of whether that day comes or not, I know that I’ll still be doing what I love – surrounding myself with books and the other amazing people who write them.