I still remember how my heart sank in 6th grade when a classmate told me I was “full of myself”.
I don't remember who said it, or what I even said to prompt it. (I must have blocked that part out from my memory.)
Regardless, it affected me for years.
You might be shocked to hear this, First name / friend, especially because I slide into your inbox every Tuesday with a big ass picture of myself and a personal reflection on the past week, buuuut:
I still struggle with a fear of coming across as full of myself when I talk about my business, or my performance career, or post too many TikToks in a row.
And it's funny because when I think about all the careers I'm pursuing, ALL of them have an element of being confidently center stage in some aspect. (It's giving trauma response 😂.)
I share this today because I know I'm not alone in feeling this way. At least half of the creative entrepreneurs I work with on website design are like, “I don't want there to be too many pictures of me," or “let's make my about page shorter”, and so on, and so on.
Through the years, though, I've realized there's a disconnect:
I think some folks assume that the people with “successful” personal brands have completely cured their fear of being seen.
I can only speak for my own experiences, of course, but I'd beg to differ. People with “successful” personal brands have just become really comfortable with discomfort.
Being seen is a muscle. In order to make it truly comfy for you, you've gotta use it and flex it.
(And even then, there's always a new weight stack to progress to, and you might plateau at some point if you don't want to become a bodybuilder.)
Have you been to the gym recently?
