Why should you feel shame about your talents, skills, and creative work? Share, show and sell. without panic
Let’s talk about shame.
I coach creative people: writers, artists, designers, musicians, and producers. Although most of them are experienced professionals, they often use words such as ‘badgering’, ‘bullying’, and ‘nagging’ when coming up with ideas or promoting their work.
They do not believe that they are providing a service that can benefit their customers, i.e. a mutually beneficial cooperation. Rather, they see themselves as beggars, needy, and helpless. Or obnoxiously pushy.
This is a mistake many of us make.
It stops us from sharing, showing and selling our work. We hide. We are timid and polite. We worry too much about what people will think. We fear being seen as arrogant, bossy, and full of ourselves.
We can see flaws in our work, areas that didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped, and when we receive praise, we feel obliged to point it out instead of simply accepting it.
Or we are so self-critical that we don’t show our work at all because we fear rejection and failure. The same doubts and fears stop us from reaching new customers through our services. Even if they know it will benefit them.
So I have a suggestion. It’s easy to make, but much harder to make. But the rewards are enormous.
Be shameless.
Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘shameless’ as follows: Feeling or showing no shame, humility, or dignity. Hard; Shameless.
But if you put your heart and soul into a piece, why should you feel shame about sharing it? You created this. So why should you be humble about it? The definition of decency varies from generation to generation. But shame about outdated beliefs tends to linger.
You have a talent, a skill, something to do that can inspire, inform, and bring joy to people. If you offer a service that can help people grow their business, why not create something more useful and beautiful. Wouldn’t it be rude to not give it to them?