When a marketing friend of mine stated, “I’m such a shameless self-promoter,” I laughed. Then I thought for a moment, and I realized that I’m a shameless self-promoter too.

I had never thought of my marketing approach as being shameless before. I would have described myself more like the Marketing Energizer Bunny. I just keep on marketing and marketing and doing whatever it takes to make it happen. I had never thought of this as shameful, unless it’s shameful to believe in something so much that you want to tell everyone you meet. I call it good marketing!

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, my father taught me that the first step in marketing success is to have a strong belief in yourself and your organization. No matter how crazy other people may think your ideas are, you must believe strongly enough to never give up.

How can you be successful if you don’t believe in yourself and what you have to offer to your customers? You can’t! Therefore, the first step in shamelessly successful self-promotion is to develop a strong belief system.

After writing my best-selling book, “Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters”™, I began to survey my audiences to see how many believe in promoting themselves. It amazed me to discover that on an average 87 percent or more did not feel comfortable promoting themselves.

If you don’t promote, it goes against the grain of all sales and marketing. Right?

You might not feel comfortable promoting yourself either, much less doing it shamelessly. Well, let me tell you what the word shameless means in Debbie Allen’s dictionary, promoting yourself everywhere in the service of others. Now does that sound self-serving, pushy or intrusive?

Much of what we believe to be true about self-promotion comes from past programming that dates back to childhood. Most of us grew up being told, “It’s not polite to talk about yourself.” Therefore you thought that it would be rude to self-promote. Most of us also have experienced ineffective self-promotion that was ego-driven and self-serving. Yet, that is simply an ineffective way to promote yourself. That type of self-promotion turns people off.

Do you feel passionate about helping your clients get the best experience possible?

Do you feel that your services are better than your competitors?

If you answered YES to either of these questions, you should be shouting it from the roof tops and giving more people the opportunity to do business with you. If you don’t promote yourself and your services you ROB your customers from the opportunity of doing business with someone who truly cares about their best interests.