I'm going to start with some tough love because hard work alone, it is not enough. And I say that as somebody who thought it was my golden ticket to make it in corporate spoiler alert. It wasn't. If you're an introvert, this one is for you today, because we're going to be talking about how to make your work actually speak for itself without having to scream about it or shouted from the rooftops.

Hi, and welcome back to the awfully quiet podcast. If you're new here, my name is Hannah. I'm a corporate brand manager by day and you're introverting corporate girl. Always. This is the awfully quiet podcast where we flip the script on what it means to be awfully quiet and how introverts thrive in the corporate world.

If you are tuning in on YouTube, congrats, because you're witnessing my very first attempt at video and audio at the same time. So let's just embrace the awkward together. Yeah.

So here's what we're unpacking today. I really want to speak about this corporate catchphrase of hard work speaks for itself. You know, that sentiment of Just put your head down and do great work and the results will follow. Now, the reason I'm so passionate about this is because it didn't work for me. I found that hard work wasn't enough in my corporate career and certainly not enough to make it to where I really wanted to go.

So what I want to cover today is why hard work doesn't always speak for itself, especially if you're an introvert. Some subtle sneaky ways I uncovered helped me to get visible and make my work seen without having to shout about it. And then I want to give you three actionable tips on how you can make your work more visible starting today without having to feel fake or awkward or do anything that doesn't feel natural to you.

If this sounds good to you, let's do it.

So where I want to start is by giving you a little bit of. a feel for my relationship with hard work because I actually thought of hard work as my friend for a really long time. I think hard work serves me really, really well. I could always rely on hard work working for me, especially when I think back to school or university where you go in, you put your head down, you get the grades, you unlock a new school year, or you unlock a new semester.

And that is always what served me really, really well. And I think it can work the same early into a corporate career because more often than not, the early career steps are mapped out for you. There is almost like a clear career path that you follow. You do this role, then you do that role. You do great work.

Your manager sees you, they promote you into the next role. Now, for me, that wasn't the case because I wanted to follow An entirely different career path or no career path at all for that matter. If you've listened to previous episodes, you'll know that I started my career in human resources as an HR business partner.

But what I really wanted my career dream was to be a brand manager and to work in marketing. That is what I work towards. So doing the hard work, getting recognized and then getting promoted didn't really work for me because back in the days I worked in this HR business partner role and I would do really good work and my manager knew it, the HR director at the time, and the team that I worked with knew it because they were the ones who witnessed me day in and day out.

So the stakeholders that I worked with, the team that I was in, I had a good reputation, they knew that I was a hard worker, they knew that I was a fast learner because I didn't necessarily have the experience of human resources before I joined them in that team, so I could really prove myself that I learn fast, that I do great work and how the way I approach challenges.

And all that. So they knew that I did a great job, but that wasn't enough for me to unlock a role in brand management because outside of my team, nobody really knew me. I wasn't visible beyond the real of the people that I worked with day in and day out. And brand management was an entirely different function that I had very little to do with.

So when I first approached them and asked whether I could apply for a role in brand management, I met some resistance there. Because they didn't know shit about me. And they were looking for somebody with more experience. And you will often hear that as an introvert in this situation. And we're looking for somebody with more experience.

The fact that you are, you know, a fast learner, the fact that you are somebody who is willing to do great work and to put their head down, it doesn't really matter because how will they know? So that is when I first kind of felt like hard work. Me doing really, really well, it had a ceiling, it didn't help me get into a function that was outside of the realm of the team that I work with at the time.

And this is the big realization here. If you do great work, it speaks for itself. As long as you want to become, you know, as long as you want to be promoted. Within the realm of that same team. If your manager has the ability to witness your work and then promote you into the next role. But if you want to go outside of your current team, if you want to switch function, if you want to pivot into a different field, or if you want to go into an entirely different industry, what you need to ensure is that reputation that you have, that it travels, that you get visible outside your immediate team.

And that is what I want to cover with you today. Now for introverts. The problem usually is between being known within your current team and being known outside your team is that you don't really like the concept of self promotion.

So why is it that introverts struggle with visibility? Why do introverts struggle with the fact that Within your team, you're, everybody knows that you're doing great work. You have a great reputation, but then outside your team, nobody really knows about you, the problem is that you don't like the thought of self promotion.

You do not like to speak about yourself. You do not like to speak about your work. You do not like to promote. What you're doing, you are not one that shares wins all the time. You're being really quiet when it comes to what you're doing really well, what you'd love to do more of and all that jazz. And that is a problem right there because this is something that extroverts do absolutely naturally.

Extroverts will talk about. Who they are, what they're looking to do, what they're currently working on, how is it going? And they will do that effortlessly. It's not like they have this grand master plan or this grand game plan to becoming more visible. They naturally talk about who they are, what they do, what's next.

And this is the problem that we have as introverts. We don't do that. We put our heads down, we do the great work, and then we're stuck. Because nobody notices. And this is what we need to do differently. We need to think differently about the concept of self promotion because I get it. I also cringe at self promotion and that what, you know, corporate tells you self promotion is and what it is that you need to do to become more visible.

But it's not actually that. I think what we need to achieve is we need to think differently about self promotion. And there is a switch. That I need you to make that will make self promotion a lot more accessible, a lot more easier to even think about. And that is, you need to stop thinking about self promotion as promoting yourself.

It's not look at me, here's what I'm doing, but it is, here's why that matters. It is about promoting your work, not yourself. It's about talking why something matters. It's about talking about the matter at hand and not about promoting yourself, your ego. It's not for career advancement only. You need to talk more about what you do and why it matters.

I'm going to give you an example here. Let's say you brought to life a new media campaign. Look, I led this media campaign. Boom. It's live. Of course, that doesn't feel genuine. That doesn't feel great to share. It feels promotional. It feels awkward, feels salesy. So instead, what you could say is, Look, what I'm really excited about is that we uncovered a new consumer insight that we brought into our new media campaign.

It's launching next Monday, and I am so pumped to see how it went and how consumers are going to be perceiving our new media campaign. Now, what does that do? It makes it more human. It makes it more real. It makes it raw. It You know, just kind of shows your excitement, your passion for what you're doing and what you're talking about.

It's not promoting yourself. It's promoting the work that you do. And this is what's going to make self promotion so much easier for you. Is unlocking something that I like to call Subtle self promotion, introvert friendly self promotion. It's talking about the work that you do, the value that you bring without actually talking about yourself too much.

So subtle self promotion, how does it work? I want to give you three actionable tips that you can start implementing right away, and they're actually part of my subtle self promotion guide that gives you a weekly, monthly, and yearly checklist of small, sneaky things that you can start doing. To make your work more visible now, where I want to start is by giving you a little bit of a glimpse.

Into what this checklist looks like. I want to start with three things that potentially needed a bit more explanations. The first one is to start talking a little bit more about yourself in the corporate world, in the corporate context, because this is something that introverts don't often do, and we often question the fact why we would need to talk about our weekends, about our private lives.

In a work context in corporate. Again, this is something that the extroverts will do naturally. You will often know an extrovert's partner's name, what they do on the weekend. You will have this full picture of who they are in their personal lives. And this is actually not something that is to be underestimated.

And the reason why is because corporate is a people business. Your career It's a people business, whatever you're trying to do, you need other people around you to make things happen and in order to be promoted in order to unlock your dream career or get into the position that you really want to achieve.

You need to build trust with other people. You need others to believe that you can do it. You need to build trust. And the way you build trust is through becoming a person that they can grasp, that they can see, that they know a little bit about. This is why bringing your personality is always so important for career conversations and job interviews.

Now, here's the thing. You do not need to become an open book. You do not need to share everything. About your private life, you need to give them little glimpses into it and you can strategically think about that you can have a think about what are some of the things about yourself that you are open to sharing that feel low risk to you that you can share in a corporate context and you don't feel like you're overexposed or you share too much about yourself.

You can also think about things that you want to selectively share or never share in order to create that boundary for you. But have a think about some of the things that feel easy for you to say. Like, for example, I will often talk about, you know, spending my weekends going to the dog park with my dog.

And, you know. Getting fancy coffee on the way, getting an oatmeal flat white somewhere. And then being in the dog park, being really low key over the weekend as part of my intro persona, obviously, , living my best hermit life on the weekends. But again, this is something that paints a picture about myself.

It just fits into what other people think about me. And more often than not, it helps other people relate with me. I'll have other people who will say to me, you know what? That sounds like the perfect weekend to me. And at the end of the day, this is what you want to achieve in order to become known. In order to build a little bit of a reputation, there are personal elements to that that are super important, to build trust, to become more tangible, to become somebody they can grasp a little bit better.

It builds great relationships. And this is exactly what you're going for in your career, genuine relationships. So give a little something about your personality.

Now, the second step to subtle self promotion is all about your wins and owning your wins in the workplace. The very first thing that I want you to start doing is to become aware of your wins, because more often than not. We don't even recognize them. We have so many little wins throughout the day, throughout the week that don't really get full recognition from us and certainly not from anybody else.

So what I need you to start doing is write them down, capture them somewhere, just look out for them and you will start to see there are more and more wins that you can add to your list. Firstly, this list is important for you. Because I bet you, you will tell me, you know what, I don't really have as many wins.

I don't have anything to share. I'm not really adding any value to my colleagues and to my teams. You absolutely do add value. And even if it's just finding those little mistakes in the PowerPoints and correcting them, because that saves your team. A lot of time and embarrassment. So start looking for little wins.

Start looking for things that you are checking off the list. Start looking for situations where you were uncomfortable, but you pushed through and then you spoke up anyway, and it was a little bit awkward, but you did it anyway. Like me recording this for the very first time, not only audio, but video.

This is a win for me, even if I'm cringing, even if I will have a hard time looking at the footage myself. It's a win because I did it. And because that is the next step that was up for me. And I want you to look out for those examples in your career, in your corporate life. What are some of the things that you are proud of?

What are some of the things that you did despite feeling cringy? Or despite not really wanting to do it in the first place. And the really, the very first step really is to just capture them. Just have a list for yourself so that you can start to appreciate what you're adding, what you're bringing to the table.

And then you can slowly start to weave them in, talk about them, mention them, not overtly, not in a way that feels like shouting through a megaphone, but in a way that just subtly states. Here's what I'm proud of this week. Like I will certainly tell my husband this evening, you know what? I recorded my first video podcast.

I'm proud of that. I freaking hate it, but I'm proud I did it. So it is self promotion in a way, but it's more talking about what I'm proud of in my career rather than being proud of myself or putting myself In the spotlight. This is what I really want you to start doing around your wins. Become more aware of them.

And then start talking about them.

And then the third thing that I really want you to start giving a try is to think about what you want to be known for. What is the thing that you want others to remember about you in a corporate context at work? Because when we build that reputation, oftentimes within a team, we're known for something, we're the go to person for something, but more often than not.

That is not necessarily what we want to be known for so it requires a little bit of intentionality. To think about what is it that I really like doing and that I want to be known for, and that is part of the cornerstone of that reputation that you're looking to build outside of your team. The first step is to become aware of what is that thing that I want to be known for?

Is it my creativity? Is it my approach to stakeholder management or to, you know, really bringing people together, leading a project or managing a project with Various different functions. What is that secret sauce that I have and that I want to build out as a strength and want to be known for? Again, the first step is becoming aware of what it is.

And then the second step is to start weaving it into the conversations that you have and letting people know that this is something that you want to develop, that this is a strength that you want to build And strengthen over time. You can say this to your boss. Look, this is what I started to uncover about myself.

I'm really strong at this. I would love to do more. If there is ever a project that comes up where I can prove or strengthen this skill, I would love to be on it in order to help my development in order to develop and grow in my career. You can start looking out for opportunities. You can start weaving it into conversations.

And that way you are building that reputation and it's slowly starting to travel.

Now the bottom line is hard work is only half the equation. The other half is making sure the right people see it. And you do not need to change yourself in order to achieve that start small, share a little bit more about yourself, celebrate your wins, even if you do that quietly and just for yourself or your loved ones, and then be intentional with what you're great at and what you want to be known for.

That's how you start. It's not about changing who you are. It's about amplifying what's already there.

Now, if this episode resonates with you, please share it with somebody who could use it too. And then if you want to stay on the journey, hit subscribe, because this is only the first of a series of episodes I'm doing on the topic of self promotion and building a reputation that does the heavy lifting for you.

I am so glad that you're here, that you're listened or watched all the way to the end. Thank you massively and see you next time.