Tips for selling what you’re doing even when you feel uncertain, shy, or self-doubting:
TRUST. YOUR. SELF. You wouldn’t be considering an opportunity if a part of you didn’t instinctively believe that you have something to offer. Figure out what that something is, and offer it!
It’s always what you CAN do, what you CAN offer. If you’re lacking in an area but you have a relevant skill-set that is similar enough, don’t dwell on the area you lack in -- focus on what you do have. Use similar phrasing that demonstrates how it overlaps with the requirements, not just to convince someone else, but to convince yourself.
If you’re asked directly whether you have experience doing something, and you haven’t, break that task down into the skills required to do it successfully. Identify the experiences through which you have developed those skills, and their relevance to the task. See if you can highlight something complementary you’ve learned, or some outside understanding you have -- so not only can you do it, but you can contribute something unique to the process.
Caution: don’t say you can do shit that you can’t, or don’t actually want to. Don’t get caught up in wanting something that isn’t what you actually want. Offer what you are genuinely prepared to give.
Counter-caution: don’t let your nervousness make you so hesitant that you actually start believing you can’t, when you definitely can. Make this call based on evidence. Have you done something like this? If you have, but it didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, how have you changed since that experience, and what new information have you learned?
On that note, your past mistakes are your biggest strength, because you’ve already made them! You can learn from them! Kill your old regrets: if you wish you’d done something differently in the past, that’s great. It means you know exactly what to do differently in the future.
This is sort of an esoteric approach, but it works for me: I believe that we get lessons thrown at us for a reason, and if we avoid them and don’t resolve them, they come back to us in a different form -- so take them on. Move forward with the mindset that challenges are really, really good things! You face them, you level up, and you progress.
Instead of being hesitant to attempt something, frame it in terms of your potential: “I have an opportunity to grow, and that’s exciting."
Don’t let that excitement result in disappointment if the opportunity doesn’t pan out. By pursuing the opportunity, you have acknowledged to yourself that you want to grow, so you will find another way to achieve that growth. You’re open to it now, so you’ll recognize when it comes.
YOU ARE CAPABLE OF CHANGE. Your past isn’t your present. Your present isn’t your future. Your growth is not linear, and very rarely does it follow clearly-defined increments.
You are never perfect, but you are always a little bit better than you believe yourself to be.
