I have a friend who is painfully shy and will do anything to avoid talking about himself. It just makes him highly uncomfortable. If you check out any of his websites, you will see minimal background information, and zero “About” pages. For some, this may be ok. However, he is trying to make it in a business that will inevitably put him in in front of reporters on a regular basis. Talking about himself then will be unavoidable, and it seems to me, that maybe practicing with his About page would be a good place to start facing this shyness.

But thinking about my friend made me think of several more of my friends who also have a hard time promoting themselves. Many times I have coached, and sometimes, down right shoved, people into creating About pages for their websites. And this is something that I’m not quite sure I understand. Although I realize that it can be hard to talk about yourself, the idea of being ok with not having a place for people to find out more information on who you are leaves me dumbfounded. Especially, if you are in fact, trying to make a name for yourself in your field. As a potential client or investor, why would I take the time to bother with you if I can’t find information about who you are or what you have done?

The About page is like a mini resume that can also contain a bit of your personality. It is the place where the reader will mentally connect with you. And without that connection, you are basically cutting off your proverbial business limbs. No connections means no contacts, and no contacts means no business. It’s just that simple.

But also, something else to consider, is your accolades. Accolades are all the times you have been published, linked to, or reviewed somewhere other then your own site. If you can’t do the talking about you, then let someone else do it for you. Your accolades become a list of all the people who think you rock, and it can speak volumes about you and the service you provide. And, let’s be honest, why wouldn’t you want to show that off? It amazes me that out of all the shout out’s and reviews that I have given to people about them, very few repost their reviews on their site. To me, this is a bad move, because basically, it’s free and positive advertising and that’s not always easy to come by.

Shameless self promotion is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. So you’d better learn to get over your shyness and start talking about yourself. Because it can be very easy to forget someone that you’ve never met in the first place.