Over the last six months or so, since I started my Estate Planning practice, I’ve been thinking a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to list them for myself so that I could figure out how best to play up my talents and compensate for my weaknesses in growing my business. This has been a surprisingly difficult task.

I consider myself a fairly introspective and self-aware person, and I think that I am really good at reading other people, and I also have a bit of an ego. So, I thought that it would be easy for me to figure out the things that I’m really good at and what I need to work on. I didn’t realize how difficult this would be. Six months later, I’m still working on my list and how I can use it both in business and in life.

In making this list I discovered one aspect of my personality that I wasn’t sure how to categorize. I’m not really sure if it’s a strength or a weakness. I guess it’s a little bit of both.

I discovered that I missed my calling in high school. Instead of being punk rock with a mohawk, miniskirts with fishnet stockings and converse tennis shoes (true story-I’ll have to scan some pictures for a later post), I should have been a high pony tailed, pom pom waiving, always smiling cheerleader. Because really that is what I am good at. Give me five minutes into a any conversation and I’m sure that I will have recommended to you at least one friend, or other business that I love and support.

Need a photographer? I have a friend who is a fabulous wedding photographer! Thinking about a new exercise routine? I looove my classes at Pilates Plus. Are you a mom in the SCV? Have you heard about SCV Moms Blog! Need a criminal defense attorney? I have a friend who is a superstar in the courtroom! My favorite coffee? So glad you asked! Need to spice things up in the bedroom–okay this never actually comes up, but–Need something fun for a bachelorette party? I have a friend who is a purveyor of fine adult goods and throws parties. You like my hair? Let me tell you about my artist of a stylist and here’s the number of the salon and directions.

I love supporting businesses that I believe in and supporting my friends in anything that they do. This is something that is really important to me. I think that making a recommendation to someone is really the least you can do to show a friend you love them or to show a business how much you appreciate the product or service they provide to you.

This seems like a good thing right? A strength I guess. Well, a pretty big weakness comes along with this. I find it very difficult to talk about myself in this way. I am not at all a good self-promoter. I don’t really like talking about myself. I find it pretty uncomfortable most of the time. In fact, the thought of having a blog seemed ridiculous to me before I had a baby. I mean, I read other people’s personal blogs and liked them, but I just couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to read about me and my life. And really, I didn’t have any idea about what I would write about. After almost two years of this blog, I’ve become more comfortable with the idea and only fairly recently started blogging about myself and not just about Eleanor. Although, I still think that no one really cares, they are just waiting for more Eleanor stories. And I wouldn’t blame you.

I’m working on it though. I know that obviously to promote myself in business I will have to talk about myself, but it really doesn’t come naturally to me. And it’s funny because you’d think that it was a self-esteem issue, but I really do think I’m pretty awesome. I guess I just don’t feel like other people want to hear about it. Well, I can work at it, and hope that for now the strength part will counterbalance the weakness so that if I’m a cheerleader for others perhaps they’ll become a cheerleader for me.