Are You Ready to Stop Feeling "Icky"
When You Have the Opportunity to Talk About Yourself Professionally?

Are You Tired of Being "Not Quite Ready" to Move Your Career to The Next Level?

Now's The Time To Take Action To Develop a Self-Promotion & Networking Plan to Help You Achieve Authentic Success!

The Fall 2012 Women’s Coaching Circle is CLOSED. If you would like to be notified the next time a Coaching Circle program is offered, please register here and we’ll let you know!

Wednesday, 4:18pm

Dear Professional Woman,

[spanwrap class="purpleunderline"]Yes, I’m writing this just for women only, for you.[/spanwrap]

In my research and work helping women tap into their inner power to succeed I’ve learned a sad truth about our half of the human race.

While we have tremendous strength and power – a renewable energy source the world desperately needs – we are too often our own worst enemies when it comes to believing in our own power and making sure others see it so they can help us succeed.

Specifically, this tendency we have to hide our best selves – our accomplishments, our gifts and our value – stalls our careers and our businesses from growing and expanding. We get ourselves to a certain point and then even the most confident among us hits an invisible barrier.

Because no one can be your best advocate but yourself.  If YOU don’t explain your accomplishments, others will never know about them.

If YOU can’t describe how you can help others through your business, others won’t believe it.

[spanwrap class="purpleunderline"]And most importantly…[/spanwrap]

If YOU don’t own your success, others will own it instead… and THEY will get the promotion, the big client and all the accolades that YOU deserve.

The good news is that I’ve discovered some [spanwrap class="purpleunderline"]surprisingly simple ways[/spanwrap] women can turn these “worst-enemy” behaviors around and get out of their own way when it comes to promoting themselves authentically, naturally and effectively.

And I’d like to invite you into a special group of women who will do exactly this between October 26 and December 14 of this year.

I’ll tell you about this special Coaching Circle in a moment, but first, let me introduce myself.

Now I’m ready to pull all this experience and knowledge together to help my clients – to help you – learn your way around the “ick” factor of self-promotion.

The Coaching Circle was a transformational experience. I was feeling stuck in my career – having very strategic thoughts and interests, but filling an extremely tactical daily role. I felt “locked up” – that none of the steps I was taking to advance my career was working…. like I wanted to “break out” somehow but just didn’t feel ready. As I worked through the tools and participated in the enriching weekly discussions, I learned new ways to think about my future, to position my value as not just what I’ve done but what I CAN do, and my confidence blossomed. This great group of women were supportive, honest and focused on encouraging my growth. Coming out of the Circle, I have a positive, proactive story about who I am and what I do. I have a strong, focused plan for moving forward. 

M.S, Director, Major Retailer

To help you, I’ve outlined the 3 biggest mistakes I see professional women make time and time again when trying to promote themselves… and the simple, 3-part strategy to correcting these mistakes so you can start promoting yourself authentically, naturally and regularly.

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Everyone has to learn how to promote themselves well and authentically – depending on their personal gifts and strengths – and to the audience who can help them best.

But the research shows that men get more help from the culture around them than women do.

In fact, last year the research organization Catalyst actually quantified the impact of the ten most effective career development strategies and found that eight of them didn’t benefit women much at all.

The two that did – aligning with powerful allies and self promotion – both hinge on the latter, learning to promote yourself effectively.

Because if you can’t promote yourself effectively to those in power who can help you, they can’t help you! But we don’t promote ourselves enough. We feel it’s unfeminine and we have irrational fears about being too noticeable that keep us silent too much of the time.

This is uncomfortable for many women, which puts us in a bind.

But it gets worse. There is additional research – from Northwestern University this time – that shows that when women display masculine traits – like extreme self-confidence – they are viewed negatively and penalized by others (women and men!) as being “unattractive” and “a b*tch”.

Many of us who have experimented with this kind of super-brazen self-confidence and found that it pushes away those people who are in the best position to help us succeed.

This is the double-bind that makes it so hard for us to promote ourselves well.

“Last year, I struggled with not feeling “ready” to talk with potential clients about new services my consulting company was launching because my track record was limited in this new area. I felt adrift, cut off from the familiar anchors of my previous professional achievements. Then, I attended InPower Consulting’s coaching circle on Self-Promotion Strategies for Women. This program really opened my eyes! I learned why some women (including me, I was shocked!) hold themselves back, in the name of “not being ready” when male colleagues with the same (or less!) experience routinely self-identify as “ready” for the next professional opportunity.  I also learned – and this is key – ways to help myself get back on track if my confidence falters when talking with colleagues and potential clients. I now am more confident in presenting my value to others in ways that are genuine and not at all pushy. Within two weeks of completing Dana’s course, I was able to confidently describe my new service to an existing client and secure two new engagements – worth three times the amount of my investment in the program. Join this program if you are ready to “go for” something in your professional life – it will provide you the support, courage and the right words to do so.”

Jennifer Miller - Creator, The People Equation

The good news is that there is a middle way, a way of promoting yourself authentically and in ways that feel natural to you and to your audience.

To tap into this authentic self-promotion approach, however, you have to stop making these three big  – and very career-neutralizing – mistakes many professional women make when it comes to talking with confidence about ourselves.

I’ll count these mistakes down from 3 – 2 –1, so be sure to read all the way to the end as it’s the most common – and most devastating – mistake of all!

So, how do you stop making these mistakes and become your own, best advocate, ensuring people who matter know what you’re capable of, what you can do and what you want to do?

You put the 3 P’s of self-promotion into action.

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Let’s take a look at what they are and how you can start using each of them right away to make progress in your career.

Effective self-promotion isn’t just about “pitching” yourself to a client or in an employee evaluation. There are many factors that make for a good self-promotion strategy, and to find the right mix that feels most authentic to you, you need to inventory your accomplishments and explore different strategies and methods for presenting them that are most comfortable for you, your audience and your objectives.

In addition to finding the ways and subjects to talk about your accomplishments that feel natural to you, you have to get to know your audience and how best to gain credibility with them.

You need to research all the venues where they might encounter information about you and develop a strategy to “be” there naturally so that over time they gain a consistent and positive opinion about you.

You may be doing this already, but almost all of us need to expand our definition of when, where and what authentic self-promotion looks like and develop a plan to expand the ways and places we do it.

You have to know what authentic, self-promotional success looks like for you and make ongoing, consistent efforts to achieve it.

Having a plan is just the beginning, however, because when you begin to promote yourself in new and authentic ways, you’re  trying on new behaviors that can make you feel really vulnerable and exposed. This can stir up uncomfortable feelings from discomfort to outright fear.

Believe it or not, the only way to begin to deal meaningfully with these difficult feelings – the barriers to your success all these years – is to “act” it out first and see what happens. You need to get really clear on your value – both in terms of what you’ve accomplished in the past and in terms of your unique skills and ideas that will help you accomplish more in the future. Most of the time, you’re afraid of things that simply aren’t there and as soon as you see this with your own experience, you can let many of the fears go.

And even when the discomfort is justified, because it is awkward trying on new behaviors, it’s important to keep practicing until you find ways that feel natural to you and your audience – so the awkwardness recedes.

Practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice makes effective.

Even when you are executing your plan and practicing new behaviors, you ‘ll need some promotion buddies to help you gain valuable perspective.

It’s important to surround yourself with people who will really support you, without letting their own egos and needs get in the way, and allow you to support them in the same way so that you can see your own trepidations with these new behaviors in a new light.

Not just any friend or colleague will do – you need Promotion Buddies who are going through the same thing and agree to support you just like you agree to support them.

And you need to learn to be a good promotion buddy. Research says that women who effectively help other women advance more rapidly and make more money because they are viewed as self-confident and they expand their network of people who’d like to help them in return.

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You may be saying to yourself, “wow, this all sounds great, but I need to wait until….” And you’d be joining the majority of women that research says over-prepare and under value how ready they are right now. The fact is that there is no perfect time to start this work. You have to start from wherever you are and learn to incorporate these new confident communication and networking behaviors into your personal style as you’re developing it! The good news is that when you do it with us, we’re there to help celebrate your successes as you discover how powerful you are and pick you up and dust you off when things don’t go so well. The truth is that you’ll never fully “be ready” to do this work… until you begin. So let’s get going!

“I was stuck in the “I’m not ready” eddy, and this course provided that shot of energy to propel me on my way to achieving my goals.”

-- Jane Stevens - Startup Founder

Position yourself for success by hanging out with people who will give you support and accept support from you as well.

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Then I’d like to invite you to join me, along with a very special group of women who are ready for the same work.

Together we will explore the tools to overcome your trepidations, develop a plan, practice until your strategy is authentic to you and your audience, and support you through the whole journey.

You might even make friends for life here… but you have to be ready… you have to know this is your time…

Having done all this work myself, I know how hard it is to stay focused. A plan is great, but executing it can get easily lost in the chaos of daily life.

So I’m inviting a limited number of women to come together and work on this with each other. In a group coaching format, we’ll help each other understand what stories we’ve been telling ourselves and construct new ones that can help us and feel authentic.

Together we’ll develop our plans and practice. Together we’ll practice being good promo buddies and learn how to support each other and BE supported. I’m hopeful that our promo-buddies will become life-long friends.

“When I was in the corporate world, I always had the confidence-booster of a big brand behind me. Now that I’m on my own, I have had to build a power base that can come only from deep inside me. Dana has been the ideal partner to help me reach that power and feel confident and comfortable using it to promote myself and my value to prospective customers. Dana’s supportive approach and savvy insight take you on a journey to greater self-appreciation, while helping you set a course of action to offload the self-sabotage and doubt that typically get in the way.”

Heidi Lorenzen, Marketing Moksha

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As soon as you register, you’ll be taken to a private, password-protected online course where you’ll find your welcome materials – a video orientation to the course from me, the webinar replay and slides, and an exercise you can undertake before the course begins to help you gather important 360 degree feedback from your co-workers.

You’ll also have the opportunity to tell us about yourself and  identify others you think would make good promo-buddies for you. This site also includes discussion forums where you’ll be prompted to reflect throughout the course and to support others in community.

Next, from October 26 to November 30 we will have group coaching calls and you’ll receive video coaching, worksheets and assignments to do with your promo-buddy and with people in the real world.

Plus, I will continue to support you through the middle of December and give you a holiday reflection to help you integrate this work so you start out the new year fully ready to implement your 2013 self-promotion plan. You’ll receive regular email reminders directly to your inbox when new materials are available online and all of our calls will be recorded so you can participate on your own time and at your own convenience.

You can do all this on your own, but I can tell you it’s going to be harder on your own. And doing this with a personal or career coach is also an awesome way to work on these issues, but it tends to be more expensive than most people can afford.

When I priced this out with career coaches years ago it was going to cost me several thousand dollars to do this kind of work, and I knew I’d end up doing most of the work myself anyway!

That’s why I developed this coaching circle format, to bring the investment down significantly while giving you all the support you need.

When you join the circle, you not only get the benefit of my coaching support, you also get a promo-buddy and a community of women working on the same goals, letting go of the same stories and who are there to support you and receive your support.

I have to tell you that the energy of a group like this is valuable all by itself. It’s uplifting and strengthening. It’s why I LOVE doing this work.

But it pays off in career advancement and increased salary, too.

There is research out there that tells us that women who learn to help other women make an average of $25,000 more a year!  That’s the kind of increased leverage and potential you’ll be adding to your career!

Because I want to make sure that EVERY woman who wants this information can reasonably afford it, [spanwrap class="yellowhighlighter"]I’ve decided to set the investment at just $497[/spanwrap].

I know that when you do the math in your left brain and do a gut check with your right brain – if it’s your time – this investment in your career and in yourself will feel just right.

If you’ve taken any of my programs before you know about that I’m committed to offering much more value in my programs than the amount I ask in return.

That’s why I’m also including the following bonuses when you join the Self Promo Coaching Circle:

The Fall 2012 Women’s Coaching Circle is CLOSED. If you would like to be notified the next time a Coaching Circle program is offered, please register here and we’ll let you know!

“The business world teaches us to define our value in terms of what we’ve done. Dana has taught me how to fully embrace my all of my skills, including both the hard and soft. Now I’m able to share my value confidently based on who I am rather than trying to muster up the so-called confidence I thought I needed to be better able to “brag” about what I’ve done.  I always believed real self-confidence comes from being your authentic self.  Now I’ve begun to experience how self-promotion can come from the same place!”

Susan Mazza, CEO at Clarus Consulting Group, LLC

Dana Theus
Founder, InPower Consulting & InPower Coaching

A 25 year business veteran, Dana has successfully transitioned from a marketing executive to leadership consultant and coach. Dana helps her clients access their “career juice” – the unique blend of authentic, joy-driven passion – so it drives their business success.

Dana is also a research-based consultant, coach and advocate for women’s leadership strategies that produce business results. She works with individual leaders, corporate clients and high-performance teams.