Bragging Rights
It's OK to toot your own horn every once in a while. Here's how to pull it off.
Your mom told you it was rude to brag about yourself-but if you
really want to market your business, you're going to have to
forget those old rules and start talking up a storm about your
greatness. Peggy
Klaus, author of Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without
Blowing It (Warner Books), shares some valuable tips:
Where does an
entrepreneur start when it comes to bragging?
Peggy Klaus:
The most important thing is to get your "bragalog" down.
A bragalog can be 15 seconds, or it can be a three-minute monologue
about who you are and what you do. Usually people do it very badly;
they give very stilted, monotone responses. "Oh, I'm a
management consultant." Then there's dead air. They
don't fill in the story.
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Can you describe some
of the biggest mistakes people make in the bragging
arena?
Klaus:
There's terrible bragging. That's why people, when they
define the word "brag," come up with this vitriolic
description that includes [the words] "obnoxious,"
"self-aggrandizing," "self-centered,"—all
those things. [One] of the mistakes people make is to be
condescending.
There's also boring people to death with that laundry list
of "This is what we do, this is what we do." You want to
weave it into a story that has very vivid images and some details
that are [said] with passion and urgency.
Can you give us an
example of how someone can infuse a story with passion and
urgency?
Klaus: For
example, an Asian woman is promoting her consulting firm. So she
says, "As an Asian woman growing up in the West, I was always
aware of how different I was than most of the people I was around.
So from a very early age, I knew that I wanted to do something [to
help] people [get] more comfortable with themselves. I feel so
incredibly blessed that I get to work in a field that I have so
much passion and belief in."
So she's told a story; she's told us about herself and
her dreams. It's woven in, and we get a better sense of who she
is. Then she could add, "I really feel that I've made an
incredible difference in people's lives."
Because it's being told in a story with some vivid images
and the sense of urgency, no one will think she's bragging.