Don’t be a skite,’ said my scots kiwi grandmother when I was a kid. To ‘skite’ is to show off in kiwi speak. To be a ‘skite’ was shameful to scots, of her generation and possibly still is. Yikes!
I learned early that tooting my own horn was ‘vulgar.’ My grandmother had a long list of vulgar behaviours. It included wearing jeans, piercing one’s ears, and horror of horrors, eating in the street.
I’ve got over all of those, but I’m still scared of skiting.
Showing up here to share wins, tips, and to add my two cents worth on the day’s hot topics feels vulgar. As Grandmother would have said, it’s ‘not what ‘we’ do.’ ‘We,’ being the well brought up, the well-mannered, and the well scared of putting ourselves out there.
Although I’m well old enough, I’m no one’s grandmother. But here’s my grandmotherly advice if you’re battling the anti-skite.
Ask someone who’s vaccinated to vet your posts. A confident, articulate social media user will tell you if your horn tooting volume is too low or too high. Too low is still my default setting, but I’m working on it.
Step out of the spotlight and shine it on your clients. If you’re sharing work and wins, you’ve made a difference to someone’s business. You’re saying, ‘we did this, and these good things happened.’ Make it more about them and less about you.
Stop overthinking. Smash out drafts and send them off for vetting. Post the polished product as soon as it comes back. This gives you less time to tune into whoever’s in your head, saying, ‘nobody likes a skite!’
Back yourself. If you’re reading this, you’re already here and doing it. Tell your inner skite police to nick off. You’re all good, and you have useful, interesting stuff to say. Besides, vulgar is in the eye of the beholder. Slurping a milkshake outside the dairy was on grandmother’s list, gin and tonic before midday wasn’t.
Which tricky lessons learned early still hold you back?
#wrinklyrant #awkward#getoutofyourownway #copywriterrant #thewrinklywriter #copywriter
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