If you were a product, what promises would you make about yourself?  What would be your campaign to get people to “like” or “purchase” you?

Put yourself in the position of being the next Pepsi of the world.  How would you market yourself differently than all the sodas out there? (“pop” if you are reading this in the Midwest)  You probably haven’t thought about it or compared yourself to a product on the shelves of a grocery store, but every day of your life you are marketing and selling yourself to others.  Every day people are formulating an opinion of you and you are formulating an opinion of them.   It’s natural.  Nothing superficial about it.

“Selling” yourself is never easy.  It is easier to hide behind a product or something that is attached to you, like a job or a company, than it is to put yourself out there for others to analyze and formulate opinions about.  Conversely, when you get fired from that company, you want it to be because of personal reasons and not ability.  It’s easier for us to digest that it was a personal problem for them and not due to a potential lack in skill or ability.  Because, when it’s personal, you can make it about them and not you.  You’re perfect.  They are the ones with the issues.  Right?

The other day a co-working asked me to write their online bio for them.  This person even offered to pay me.  I work with sales and marketing people all day and their job is to create and build relationships with clients and others in an effort to get those people to spend money with them.  In the end, they are selling a product, but nobody wants to give their marketing budgets to someone they don’t like or trust.  They initially need to sell themselves.  Being likable and interesting helps to get your foot in the door of businesses and often you make your first connection through social media.  That internet thing….everyone’s on it.

It’s hard to write about yourself.   It often seems impossible to describe who you are in less than 160 characters.  You have concerns like “Does this sentence make me sound like a dick” or “Do these descriptive words make me sound too boring”.  There is a delicate balancing act that needs to happen between the two.  People are experiencing you (like the first sip of a Pepsi) for the first time and you want to make a strong impression.  This is true in business and in life.  You want to make sure they understand who you are and what you’re all about, but you’re also concerned that you might be giving off the wrong impression.

My advice to you?  Screw it.  Don’t over think the damn thing. Fitting in and trying to be like everyone else will only make you forgettable.

I’m not going to write a bio for any of you.  I will however try to steer you in the right direction.  I’m not you-Pepsi.  I’m Country Time lemonade.  I don’t even drink soda!  What do I know about you that you haven’t told me about yourself, knowingly and unknowingly?  You know the benefits and ingredients that come with being you and you just might need to be pushed in the right direction of creating a self marketing campaign. 

Start here!  Write 10 down things that people don’t know about you.  You may not use all of them, but they will get you thinking in the right direction. You like to cook, eat fire, tango dance, speak Chinese, deep sea dive, whittle, whatever.  The stranger the better sometimes. These are your secret ingredients.  Things that make you feel different are going to make you more interesting.  The oddities that come with being you will actually make you more attractive to others and give them the confidence and willingness to share their oddities with you.  These secret ingredients are going to be ice breakers for conversations and will help in your desire to stand out from the pack.  There are lots of sodas out there, but you come with an ingredient that is way more interesting than the others!  Smaller niches actually breed more involvement and interest.  Don’t fear sharing these things about yourself.  Embrace them and allow them to help your profile become more interesting.

You may discover that you are more exciting than you originally imagined, especially after other validate your differences by asking lots of questions about your lifestyle or hobby.  You may also discover that you are not taking advantage of all the opportunities that life has given you and you need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone to learn and embrace new things.  Only you can make that call, since others only see what you project.