When you see the hoards and hoards of politicians of every stripe grasping, maneuvering, exhorting, pleading, and manipulating, trying to seize just one more moment of significant presidential candidate air time, it’s enough to make you shy away from promoting yourself forever.
It’s so crass. It’s so boring. It’s so me-me-me (it reminds me of the seagulls in “Finding Nemo”). Who outside of politics would want to be associated with such narcissistic tackiness? More to the point, who would want to be on the receiving end of that self-aggrandizing, feature-oriented pitch in any other context?
If I didn’t know that education- and relations-based marketing were 180 degrees removed from that bipartisan public demonstration of “marketing at its worst,” I’d put a paper bag over my head and sneak away in the middle of the night to the nearest cave to grow mushrooms.
What these people are doing in this particular and really rather peculiar display of competitive ego-centrism every four years has little bearing on what you have to do to give yourself visibility and credibility. It's not about you. your ambitions, or what you can gain. In fact, your ego should not be even a part of the equation.
Your goal as a self-promoter is to make yourself seen, known, and felt as a dignified, caring, listening, and trustworthy professional. Your goal is to subtly, overtly, and repeatedly show that you're more interested in your client and solving his/her problem than you are in "marketing" or "selling" to her/him. You are more interested in your client than you are even in yourself.
Nope. I guess that will never fly in politics. Too bad!
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