One of the themes that stood out for me from your responses to last week’s Calling All Healers survey was the resistance to self-promotion:

“Social media is an obstacle because I resist it. It’s a time sink and feels self-promotional.”

“Sometimes it’s challenging for me to promote myself.”

“It can be challenging to balance out the ‘self-promotion’ aspect that seems like there is a lot of for myself/business”

At first, I was surprised that this was an obstacle, but then I realized it totally makes sense. If you are a solopreneur who is promoting your individual, personal, and sometimes hands-on and face-to-face services, it can feel vulnerable to say: I’m the one who can help you.

Also, if you’re a healer, you may tend towards taking care of others, thinking about others’ needs before your own, and being of service. Directing attention towards you may feel uncomfortable, unnatural, or even “wrong.”

But what if you could do both: be self-promotional and be of service? To do so may require you to look at your beliefs:

1. Do you believe in yourself and what you’re offering?

If you don’t believe that you can help someone, well then, yes, it’s going to feel pretty icky to put a spotlight on your work because deep down you believe that their hiring you would be a bad idea. Post something by your computer so that when you sit down to work on marketing stuff, you remember how your work has changed lives (e.g. notes/testimonials/photos from clients you’ve helped).

2. Do you believe that telling people about your work makes the world a better place?

A core value of many healers is to “be a force for positive change,” or to “improve people’s lives,” but if someone who needs your help doesn’t know about your work, how can you improve their life? When you are feeling resistant to promoting your work, imagine one of your clients before they came to you, lying in bed and in some kind of pain or suffering and thinking, “Who can help me?” Make it easy for the people who need your help to find you. Self-promotion is part of your “mission” in the world as a healer.

3. Do you believe how you self-promote can be a form of healing?

Every tweet, Facebook update, Instagram photo, YouTube video, e-news issue, blog post, webinar, advertisement, interview, and promotional event can make someone’s life better. It’s possible for all of those things to be beautiful, or inspiring. It’s possible for all of those things to help someone solve a problem, learn something about themselves,  laugh, or feel a powerful emotion. And it’s possible for all of those things to help someone find you after they’ve searched and searched for healing help.

When a person is unwell physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, they may not have all of their usual resources to figure out and find what they need to feel better. One of your jobs as a healer is to make it easier for people who are suffering to find you.

Believe in yourself and what you’re offering.

Believe that telling people about your work makes the world a better place.

Believe how you self-promote can be a form of healing.

Self-promotion of your healing work IS a form of service.

Please take my anonymous 10-question Calling All Healers survey. I want to learn about your Big Vision for your healing work in the world, what comes easily, and what your challenges are.

Image: “Green Means Go” by me.