Love him or hate him, you gotta admit Donald Trump knows how to toot his own horn. Some people think he’s a dunce, a blowhard or just plain distasteful (or all three), but he does get and keep attention, and somehow against all odds, and to the consternation of both major US political parties, he’s managed to persuade an awful lot of people he’d be a credible president. I’m convinced that most of it comes down to his unabashed self-promotion and blithe, almost innocent, confidence. He is certain he’s the best…and in business dealings, the person with the most certainty wins.
I was thinking about this and musing my super-modest husband Jim about how seldom we talk to ourselves with that kind of confidence about what we have to offer. As a joke, I did an impression of Jim “doing” Donald Trump on the topic of his own business.
My little 3-minute act was very funny (at least we thought so)… but here’s the part that shocked us. As over the top as it was, I hadn’t told any lies. I just acted and spoke like my husband’s stuff is amazing – which it is. We realized he’d really been selling himself very short, most of all to himself.
Now I dare YOU to try it: talk like The Donald for 3 minutes about you, your business, your clients’ successes, why you’re better than your competitor. It might come out sounding something like this (Extra points for the Queens accent): “I’m one of the greatest (fill-in-the-blank)s you’ll ever meet, no one in the world does what I do like I do. Everybody loves me and wants to work with me. I’ve been incredibly successful, and that’s because I deliver the best. When I work with someone, they are gonna be very successful too. That’s why they all love me. That’s why everybody lines up for my programs and they pay me a lotta money, thousands and thousands of dollars, and they still feel like they’re getting the deal of the century, because I get results. There are so many other coaches/consultants/lawyers/healers/dog trainers out there, a lot of them are incompetent, they rip people off, their businesses are a disaster. They’re losers! I’m a winner, I provide an excellent service, just ask my clients, they’ll tell you. I’m great at what I do. I care about my clients more than anyone and I work my ass off to make sure they get value, because that’s how I roll. That’s why my business is growing beyond all expectations.”
OK, so it feels a little silly or even hilarious to talk like this, (and of course you’d never say any of it out loud in public or on Periscope). But when you really think about what you said, isn’t a lot of it essentially true? If you don’t FEEL that way about yourself and your services or products, why not? What would it take for you to feel that confident in your awesomeness? Do you need to make your services or products more awesome? Or do you just need to own your competence and give yourself permission to be a bit more proud of what you’ve accomplished so far and your power to transform peoples lives and businesses?
You’ve probably heard about Ann Cuddy’s Ted Talk where she demonstrates a scientifically proven “power pose” you can assume to give yourself a feeling of confidence. My very unscientific ‘Donald Talk” had a similar effect on both me and my husband!
What if you showed up everywhere, in person, in your copy, on discovery calls… as if deep inside, you had this degree of certainty about your value and your skills? Do you think you could close more sales, charge higher prices?
Wow. Who’d have thunk it—Donald Trump just gave you something to think about.. 😉
OK, so it feels a little silly or even hilarious to talk like this, (and of course you’d never say any of it out loud in public or on Periscope). But when you really think about what you said, isn’t a lot of it essentially true? If you don’t FEEL that way about yourself and your services or products, why not? What would it take for you to feel that confident in your awesomeness? Do you need to make your services or products more awesome? Or do you just need to own your competence and give yourself permission to be a bit more proud of what you’ve accomplished so far and your power to transform peoples lives and businesses?
You’ve probably heard about Ann Cuddy’s Ted Talk where she demonstrates a scientifically proven “power pose” you can assume to give yourself a feeling of confidence. My very unscientific ‘Donald Talk” had a similar effect on both me and my husband!
What if you showed up everywhere, in person, in your copy, on discovery calls… as if deep inside, you had this degree of certainty about your value and your skills? Do you think you could close more sales, charge higher prices?
Wow. Who’d have thunk it—Donald Trump just gave you something to think about.. 😉
Great point Lisa! It’s absolutely true that the one with the most certainty wins. You have to hand it to Trump, he may not be presidential material, and right or wrong on his facts and outrageous statements, he sure as hell knows how to wage an interesting race and command attention — and nearly all of it for free.
Thanks Bev, it’s ture that a little of him goes a looooong way. I just think most of us — especially women — could use a small dose of self-aggrandizement just to bring ourselves up to an accurate assessment of our true value!
fantastic article and advice. I will do this as a challenge – 5 minutes morning mirror exersize for an entire month. Let’s see how great confident will I have after that 😉
This made me laugh, but great points!