The Power of the Subtle Brag

One Element of Pivoting with Confidence

In today's competitive market, service providers face the constant challenge of needing to stand out and build a loyal client base. Many feel awkward talking about their achievements, often forgetting their own awesomeness due to the busyness of daily life and wanting to avoid coming across as too “salesy”. Yet, sharing a brief story where clients can see themselves in your journey can create a powerful connection. We can practice weaving these types of stories into our every day interactions and it is a key element in pivoting with confidence. This is what I sometimes call: The Power of the Subtle Brag.

Engaging the Power of the Subtle Brag

One of the most effective ways to harness The Power of the Subtle Brag is by keeping top of mind the myriad experiences and opportunities that have shaped your path and led you to be the person you are in the world. These unique stepping stones not only define your expertise but also help your audience see who you were and who you are now. It allows clients to see themselves in you, to feel they know, like, and trust you. The power there is in the forging of a connection that is vital for turning potential clients into purchasing customers and after that into dedicated advocates for your brand. Remember, you can’t re-tell if you can’t recall. So first and foremost in learning to use these stories for good is to recall them!

Why Bother to Recall as a Busy Business Owner?

If you’d like to know what good it will do for you or your audience if you spend the time to comb through your trials and tribulations, reflecting on and remembering your journey, I assure you the act serves several key purposes:

Building Connection: When you share your experiences, struggles, and triumphs, you become relatable. People are more likely to trust someone who feels real and genuine. Describing triumphs without struggles seems false, and detailing struggles without triumphs falls flat.

Establishing Credibility: By recalling your journey, including challenges and how you overcame them, you demonstrate your expertise and resilience. This helps establish you as a credible authority in your field, showing you understand on multiple levels.

Clarifying Brand Pillars: Your experiences inform your core values and brand pillars. They illustrate what you stand for, what drives you, and what your clients can expect from working with you. This clarity is crucial for building a strong, consistent brand. Your beliefs will shine through in the way you recount your past and connect to present circumstances.

What’s Top of Mind Will Come to Mind

It's not enough to have had great experiences; you need to remember them fluently enough to be able to integrate them into various aspects of your business interactions. Here’s how you can do that effectively:

Casual Conversations: Share relevant anecdotes during conversations with potential clients or at networking events. These stories make your interactions memorable and meaningful.

Sales Calls: Use your experiences to illustrate how you’ve helped others overcome similar challenges. This showcases your expertise and helps potential clients envision their success with your guidance.

Social Media Posts: Regularly share snippets of your journey on social media. Whether it’s a lesson learned from a past mistake or a recent success story, these posts keep your audience engaged and invested in your narrative. When relevant, share anecdotes to offer experience, strength and hope on others’ posts.  

Emails: Incorporate your experiences into stories told in newsletters and email campaigns. Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your work, personal anecdotes, and client success stories to keep your communication authentic and relatable.

Leveraging Your Weird and Weary

To help members of my program, Flow Alignment, identify and remember the experiences that best represent their journey and values, I created a resource called "Thirty (Plus) Unique Things About You." This tool helps business owners draw out important and poignant memories by reflecting on various aspects of their life and career. Here’s why this type of exercise is effective:

Combat Success Amnesia: We often forget our achievements because we’re always moving on to the next thing. By keeping a running list of your successes and unique experiences, you can easily reference and remind yourself (and others) of how far you’ve come.

Reflect on Your Journey: Using prompts to recall early life experiences, childhood interests, and unique training that shaped your current path, write brief stories to share. These reflections are often the most compelling and relatable for your audience.

Identify Your Specialties: Highlight any specialized training or unique skills that set you apart. Sharing how these specialties contribute to your work helps clients see the unique value you bring. Even childhood hobbies can become relevant when you start to pay attention to how they relate to what you do now.

Consider Influential Interactions: Reflect on significant events, places, people, and books that influenced your journey. These reflections add depth and context to your expertise. Don’t hesitate to ask your audience about their influences too.

Embrace Your Unique Perspective: Share aspects of your life that are “out of the norm” and how they shaped your worldview. What seems normal to you might be fascinating to others. What you take as obvious may be revolutionary to others.

Encourage Self-Reflection: Reflect on what people need to know about you to determine if you’re the right fit for them. Share insights that help potential clients see themselves in your narrative and understand your motivations.

Practical Tips for Tasteful (But Helpful) Bragging

To ensure your experiences resonate with your audience, consider these practical tips:

Be Authentic: Share reflections that are true to your experiences and reflect your genuine self. Your audience can sense when something is contrived. If it takes effort, it’s probably worth getting more honest and clear about what you’re wanting to have happen as a result of the share.

Be Relevant: Tailor your reflections to your audience’s interests and needs. Ensure each memory has a clear connection to the message you want to convey and the outcomes you’d like to see. Share with consent and kindness, be aware of context and reduce harm wherever and whenever possible.

Be Persistent: Regularly share experiences to keep your audience engaged, do this in posts of your own, as comments on others’ posts and in stories/reels. Focus on being persistent rather than consistent. Telling stories about your journey strengthens your brand recognition and keeps your narrative relatable.

Be Concise: While details are important, keep your reflections concise and to the point. Focus on the key message and avoid unnecessary tangents. Remember people are distracted and you want to hook their attention and help them stay long enough to gain something.

Invite Interaction: Encourage your audience to share their own experiences or ask questions. This fosters a sense of community and makes your communication more interactive. Engage your audience in conversations in the comments and invite them into DMs or email to further the dialogue. 

Conclusion

Remembering and reflecting on your journey is not just a trendy act of journaling or faux self-care; practicing the art of speaking up about where you shine and why is a powerful way to build connections, establish credibility, and clarify your brand pillars. As a service provider, your unique experiences and insights are invaluable assets. By keeping your vast experience and credibility front of mind and practicing the art of weaving stories of your awesomeness into your daily interactions, you create a strong, relatable, and trustworthy brand that resonates with your audience.

Consider utilizing a bulleted list on a sticky note next to your keyboard as a visual reminder for yourself on all sales or networking calls. This helps to ensure you never forget the steps along the journey that brought you here now. Reduce the likelihood of impostor syndrome with this visual proof of your braggable achievements placed within eyesight of your desk! Embrace the Power of the Subtle Brag and let your experiences be the bridge that connects you with those you aim to serve. Not sure if you’re on the right track? Send me an email and tell me more. I’ll send you a referral or a resource to help guide you in the next best direction. So remember…no matter your stage of business, one element of pivoting with confidence is telling good stories (that others find themselves repeating), and the subtle brag becomes the best, most powerful kind of business card!