Award-winning founder and best selling author Stefanie Sword-Williams’ sessions on The Female Leaders’ Club Stage at MAD//Fest were immense crowd-pullers. If you missed her empowering keynote or masterclass, Stefanie now shares with you the 3 ways to advocate for yourself more effectively and build unapologetic confidence. 

Have you ever held yourself back because you’re worried about what other people will think? If so, you might be feeling FOSS (the fear of sounding stupid). This is a phrase I coined when I was writing my first book F*ck Being Humble to describe the feeling we experience when we don’t advocate for ourselves authentically out of fear we will be judged by others. Instead we choose to follow the norm, minimise our uniqueness and sell ourselves. I personally am on a mission to change this with my consultancy, movement and message F*ck Being Humble.

The reason I want people to grow unapologetic confidence is because we shouldn’t feel embarrassed to talk about our wins publicly, in fact, if we want to see results in our career we need to get comfortable with self-advocacy. This year at MAD fest I shared three ways you can advocate for yourself more effectively:

  1. STOP WAITING FOR PERMISSION

If you want to achieve something or reach certain credentials, please don’t wait to be invited - invite yourself. When we wait for other people to tell us how good we are or validate us we miss out on opportunities. So if you want to be known for something, chase that thing before you think you’re ready, and don’t wait for it to land in your lap. And remember if you don’t put yourself forward for it, someone else who might not be as good as you. 

  1. IGNORE THE INNER CRITIC

Whenever you move out of your comfort zone you’re likely to be met with an inner critic that tells you the thing you want to do is not possible. If you want to retrain or challenge that thinking you need to regularly self-reflect and self-congratulate your small steps of progress. Try creating a folder in your phone called ‘Proud Moments’ and add photos, feedback and proud memories to the folder. Over time this will develop as a visual archive so you can remind yourself just how great you are and challenge that self-sabotage mindset.

  1. PUSH THROUGH THE SILENCE

Not everything you say, do or share will be received with a standing ovation but that shouldn’t deter you from continually advocating for yourself and sharing your ideas. Just because people aren’t vocal doesn’t mean they’re not impressed. If you want to be remembered you have to keep building your profile without expecting instant results and be accepting that not everyone will love what you do. As long as you have a clear intention, the right people will find you, support you and open doors for you.

For further advice on building unapologetic confidence and embracing self-promotion, grab a copy for ‘F*ck Being Humble: Why self-promotion isn’t a dirty word’ or visit www.fuckbeinghumble.com to see how we can support your business needs.

Check out Stefanie's keynote here: