Are you ready to F*ck Being Humble?
An interview with the queen of self promotion, Stefanie Sword-Williams
“The content you put out about yourself is what people will know you for. The minute you realise that, that you are very much in control of the stories you put out, it is actually quite empowering”
We are SO excited for our first expert interview to go live on the LookUP Substack. Stefanie Sword-Williams, founder and author of F*ck Being Humble, was on our wish list of experts to include for this month, because in a sea of generic advice, hers constantly stood out. She balances inspiration with practical advice and application and consistently disrupts the market of career progression and self promotion.
A clear example is Stef’s latest campaign, calling on Men to step up in supporting women in the workplace:
In a month with a significant amount of (justified) vitriol online about companies superficially supporting International Women’s Day, rather than having year round action, Stef’s campaign was on the money. It gave a clear set of actions that made it clear the responsibility is on all of us (as is the benefit) to close the workplace gender gap.
Be The Director is this month’s theme, and as Stef says in our interview “people talk about personal branding, but they often mean professional”. The balance is something we all struggle with.
The interview covers:
Taking control of your own story (and that it is in your control)
Not waiting to be invited, create your own opportunities
The importance of self reflection and your story being flexible
The difference between ‘known for’ and ‘remembered for’
The movement to people sharing the ‘enjoyment’ of working life
The importance of boundary setting in story
The ultimate test: would you want the CEO of your dream client to see it?
For our first few months we’ll release one of these interviews to our free subscribers; but the rest will be for our paid community. This one’s available for all to watch now, enjoy!
If you haven’t checked out this months post on how to tell your own story, it’s available for all subscribers here, including the framework that we use in our workshops:
And for our paid subscribers, you can access full guidance on how to use the framework, and a live online session on Thursday 21st to put it into practice & trouble shoot with Matthew and Caroline, the founders of LookUP.
Enjoy! We’d love to know what you think are the best insights from the interview. Check out ‘Chat’ for more discussion around this topic over the next couple of weeks
Caroline and Matthew, Co-Founders LookUP