Go off and show off
You must learn how to talk about yourself
“Give yourself some spin. How you perceive yourself is how others will.”
–Paul Arden
Being loud and proud about your work is hard.
You did the work and it must be acknowledged. This is true whether you’re among work-win celebrants or surrounded by frenemies and schmo-workers who tried to keep you from sitting at the table.
It can feel like a form of corporate braggadociousness, but it’s not petty to be proud of your work. You have to do it.
Not acknowledging your work is a recipe for burnout. It hurts to give something your all and get zero pats on the back. It also hurts the world. Success is the currency of success. When you hide yourself, you risk your work staying hidden too. Turning into myth what could have been legend.
But instead of just being real about our radness, writers tend to take two windy roads to success city:
"Success happened to me, not because of me"
Writers erect an emotional buffer through the use of humblebragging or understatement. “So I did a thing…” A bashful, oh-golly-gee, I’m-just-happy-to-be here vibe that becomes an automatic tick. It makes you feel lobotomized. Resist the urge to cast your successes to the periphery. Make your work center stage.
"Maybe I'll be discovered if I work hard enough"
Steve Martin said “Be so good they can’t ignore you” and many writers take this to heart. We grind away hoping to be noticed like an ingenue in 1930s Hollywood. Surely, if we keep kicking butt, someone else will dub us "asskicker of the year." The problem with BSGTCIY is that people are too busy in their own world to pay attention to you.
These windy roads sound like humility but really you're blurring the reality of what actually happened. You're letting your shyness distort the narrative. You're making it harder for people to understand the overall arc of your work and its impact. And this is horrible content design.
You have to name yourself.
I get it. It feels weird to talk about your successes. It's vulnerable. But you must throw off the sweaty mantle of other people’s perceptions of you and become the author of your own story. One way to do this is to communicate your wins as ice cold facts.
Be irrefutable, be chill, and be memorable. No need to lie or exaggerate. The formula is simple:
I had a clear impact
Supporting this goal or outcome
Based on this specific approach
In action it might look like:
I improved completion rates by 69% by
Streamlining the onboarding flow when
I removed the redundant CTAs
Always front-load impact because attention spans are short and memories are long.
You can stop here if your style is a brisk iced tea. If you prefer long-island iced tea, might I suggest you weave these facts into a story. Craft a narrative, cast a likeable main (you), and give yourself some spin.
You're a writer; you know how to tell a compelling story. And you have to. That's your job.
Be proud. You did the work, you made an impact. Learn how to talk about yourself.