During this past year, there has been so much that has happened, which has allowed me to build my confidence and succeed more than ever in this field. In digital marketing, you have to be able to explain to clients, CEOs, and business owners why what you do is so valuable. Often, there can be misunderstandings because of lack of confidence from you. Why is it that even though many digital marketing professionals I know still struggle with some of these issues?
And I’m talking about getting super nervous over the phone during an interview or being so afraid to reach out to potential clients on LinkedIn.
Well, I think some individuals take a more humble approach to their work. They don’t like to brag about necessarily being the best SEO or PPC or content marketing expert in their field, even though there are so many people in this field who aren’t willing to put in the time or effort to provide consistent communication across the board. Those are the people who outright don’t care at all about what they’re doing and are willing to coast by and not grow or learn.
On the other hand, you have the super talented and bright trailblazers in this field, many of them don’t even know what they’re truly capable of. For much of the time, I fit into the second category of digital marketer. Someone who’s very bright and thinks strategically yet had no idea how much potential I really had until I started talking with more industry professionals.
In this article, I’m going to show you some of how I was able to develop more unshakable self-confidence in myself. It’s something I know a lot of people struggle with, even outside of digital marketing. This is all going to be based on experience, so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did, so let’s get right into it!
My Story Building My Own Confidence
When I started in SEO and PPC so long ago, I dreamed of being able to be like one of the heavy-hitters I looked up to. I wanted to be that guy who could convince a business owner to invest their time and resources into Google Ads and Facebook Ads. I would watch videos from Dan Henry and seeing how he was able to scale his business in seemingly no time at all.
That was all fine and good, but there was one big problem that I was facing at the time. I didn’t have much of a track record yet, and that can be quite scary for anyone new to this industry. How was I going to become good at content marketing? At SEM? At designing websites? All these different skills that at one point I thought I was never going to get as much exposure to as I have now.
And for a while, I didn’t think it was possible for me to get to that point. But, I did my best always to stay as optimistic as I could. When I invested more into Audible, I would get exposure to as many personal development books as I could. A good friend of mine introduced me to some of Napoleon Hill’s works. Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude was one of the very first books that I read. Although a lot of it didn’t make sense at all to me at the time, looking at it in context now made me realize that there was a lot more to such books than meets the eye.
It was tough to see how any of the advice from such books could be so life-changing. I mean, I had been used to analyzing situations and trying to be as realistic as I could. I never thought that adopting a more positive outlook towards life could be one of the driving catalysts behind all the changes in myself that I’ve been seeing, but it has!
Why Digital Marketers Need to Stay Strong and Positive
This is what I really wanted to discuss the most. Everyone at some point goes through tough times where it feels like there’s no hope. The inner voice of doubt creeps in and starts telling you such things as:
- You’ll never be good enough.
- Why are you wasting your time chasing your dreams?
- Moving out to a place you’ve dreamed of since you were a little kid is never going to happen. Give up now.
- You failed at your job interview, you will never make it! The company will never hire you.
- It’s easier to throw in the towel and never try again.
Combined with facing constant disappointments whether it be losing clients or getting turned down from some fantastic opportunities, it can be enough to bring anyone down. Some people I know went over 11 months before their lives started to turn around. They were in some intense financial trouble and had so many issues at home with their families.
But in my talks with these incredible people, the one thing kept standing out to me in these phone conversations that I’d have with them.
No matter how bad the situation got in their lives, they had this unshakable belief that what they were doing is right. When I kept hearing all these stories, I began to look deep within myself and realized that if they could make it out of all the troubles they had, then so could I.
That’s really one of the keys to building your own self-confidence. Surrounding yourself with as many people as you can who have been there, done that, and can give you advice based on their experiences.
The other main thing you have to do to start building greater confidence in yourself whether you’re doing SEM consulting or you’re a web developer is to realize that there’s always something new to learn and that’s okay. Don’t feel pressured into calling yourself an expert. Instead, focus on the end goal and reason behind everything that you do. Try to find that purpose and have a goal you want to hit. Then, it will be much easier for you to work towards these goals and win more people onto your side as well.
Take It From Linda Raynier
Occasionally, I watch videos from this Canadian coach named Linda Raynier, and she was one of those people who made understand how important energy can be.
For a lot of us, we can feel when someone’s in control and sure of themselves. When you don’t have that confidence or the results to back up what you say, it’s easier to lose control, say the wrong things, and be less sure of yourself. I highly recommend watching this video, for example, to get more an introduction to this concept.
In another one of her videos, she also recommends reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The other week, I began to go through that book, and so much of what the author describes could apply to many of the things I had going on in my life at the time. Plenty of disappointments, emotional, and even some physical pain to overcome, but I never let myself down to the point where I would swear off digital marketing for good.
It could have been my choice to go on and do something else, but I knew that if I just kept doing what I was doing, I was going to see massive changes in my life. Taking care of some other issues I was having also allowed me to put things into perspective and better understand how failure isn’t the end of the world after all.
So, How Did I Do It?
If you’ve made it this far, then good! That means that you want to get my own take on this topic. Well, there’s a lot I’ve discussed, but I have to say one of the best things I did for myself to build greater confidence was to start updating and revising my LinkedIn profile and now my website.
That’s right. It was very seemingly simple changes that made much of the difference.
Why?
Before, I was trying to be like everyone else, and it turned out to be the worst thing I could do. It ate at me every day to know that I had all this extraordinary optimism and talent, but I wasn’t showing it off enough in my profiles and in my phone conversations, so I had to change the way that I look at myself completely.
I had to forgive myself for all the past mistakes that I made in my life, and all these little regrets that could potentially hold me back. When I did do these things, I started to see an immediate turn-around in my life. I started to network more and more on LinkedIn and get my name out there. I’m now published on several digital marketing websites, and most recently, some advice that I had about LinkedIn is going to be published in one of LinkedIn influencer Josh Steimle’s books!
I would have never made this far if I hadn’t learned to love myself a bit more and to stay true to my passion and vision in life.
If you check out my About Me page and have been here long enough, you’ll notice that I’ve been able to expand on it and update the layout quite a bit, especially with the two columns, and more screenshots from other great marketing professionals who know me best. I still had a lot of stuff on there about being a cartoonist, but I didn’t own up to anything that made me truly unique in the first place.
Now I have a page where I poke fun at myself, but still display tons of passion and love for digital marketing, which is precisely how I want people to see me as. A very fun-loving person, but who’s also serious about getting the job done right.
Once you get an idea of how many screwed up SEO and PPC accounts there are, and truly understand your value as a digital marketing professional, that’s when your confidence will keep growing and growing. You’ll start getting more organized, clean up your bookmarks in Google Chrome, and come up with a plan for yourself where if you stay consistent enough each day, you will eventually see success!
Don’t give up, and keep going at it every day and you’ll get there too!
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