No One Knows That You're Great At What You Do

Preface: This is an attempt to document a talk that I gave at a Tech conference earlier this year. The talk with the same title seemed to resonate with a lot of people and some people who couldn’t attend asked if I could share the ‘slides’. The slides barely have any text in them so I’ve decided to try to compress parts of the talk into this article instead.

You may not know me, but I know you.

I know you work hard, and you put your best into your work.

You do so much, but somehow, you never get the visibility or recognition that you deserve.

You sometimes see your peers getting recognition for their work, and you struggle to understand why that isn’t you instead.

I mean, you’ve got the skills too.

It’s reaaally annoying

It’s annoying because you know that the most visible people or businesses get the most financial rewards, the most opportunities, and often, the most growth.

It also doesn’t help that layoffs are happening daily, start-up funding is slowing down, and AI is making the future structure of work uncertain.

These are truly tough times.

Well, in these tough times, it has become more important than ever to ensure that your work and expertise are recognizable and visible.

That seems pretty straightforward right?

The only problem is that you’re not good at blowing your own horn and getting recognition for your work.

You also think it’s pretty cringe…

This can make it really hard.

Well, this is a list of 5 low-effort ways to get recognition and visibility for your work as a tech professional or business owner.

1. Learn How to Frame Things

One of the first things I ever noticed about communication is how framing could change the meaning and perception of things.

Really understanding who you’re communicating with and what you’re trying to communicate can really help with getting more recognition for your work.

For example, there’s a difference between:

“I’m a product manager at BNP Paribas” and “I’m a product manager at Europe’s second-largest bank.”

There’s a difference between:

“I upgraded the hard drive to 100GB” and “I upgraded the hard drive so it can now hold 1000 more songs”

You need to know how to simplify things, make them more interesting, and also add context when necessary.

This will help people understand what you do and how much value you bring.

Learn how to frame things.

2. Find Your Sponsors.

Have you ever seen this iconic scene from The Lion King? You know, where Rafiki is raising Simba high in the air so the entire Pride Land can see him?

Rafiki in this situation is what we call a sponsor.

A sponsor is ideally:

• Someone ahead of you in their career.

• Someone who cares about your development.

• Someone willing to mention your name in rooms that you’re not in.

  
  

Because I assure you that these rooms exist.

When promotions are being discussed in your organization or when VCs are trying to decide if they should invest in your start-up or not. They ask about you.

Having sponsors or supporters who can vouch for you in these situations is very important.

Look around your organization or industry, identify people who fit this description, tell them about your career goals, and ask for their support. In most cases, they will agree to support you, and this can be a game-changer for your career.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Put Your Ideas Out There

There’s nothing new here. We all know that we should post more on social media, write more blog posts, ask more questions in meetings, etc.

What we don’t know is how to get over the anxiety that comes with actually doing this even though we know that we know what we’re saying.

A simple hack around this is to learn how to build a reputation without being an expert.

How I do this, is by framing things as ‘my opinion’.

For example, if there’s a new model on ChatGPT, I could write an article titled “I tested the latest ChatGPT model to see how much it understood African context.”

From the content of the article, the reader will be able to tell that I have an interest and probably some experience with AI, that I seem to have a technical understanding, and maybe that I have some interesting ideas.

And this will happen all without me calling myself an ‘expert’ or risking people trying to ‘dunk on me’ on the internet.

Sharing ideas in this way also helps you become less worried about whether your idea is accepted or not.

With this in place, you will start to become more comfortable with sharing your ideas.

4. Don’t Leave It to Chance.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they think, “I’ll just keep working hard, soon everyone will notice the awesome work I’m doing, and more opportunities will come my way.”

It happens because we’re so deep in our work, and we think everyone else is experiencing it the same way we are.

The truth is no one can see you or your work most times because they are much too bothered about their own work and life.

And on the rare occasion that they notice, you would have done double the work that you’re getting recognized for at that point.

Don’t take the hard route; don’t leave things to chance or luck.

You have to go after what you want.

You have to:

• Be clear on what you want. — E.g. I want to get more publicity for my start-up.

• Make sure others understand it too. — Tell friends, family, and mentors about what you’re trying to achieve.

• Ask for it. — E.g., Reach out to journalists, tell them about your start-up, and ask if they’re interested in doing a story on it

Whatever you do, don’t leave it to chance.

5. Trust the Process.

I know exactly what’s going to happen next.

You’re going to get motivated by this post; you’ll start sharing your ideas more and putting yourself out there.

Then, in a few weeks, you’re going to stop.

You’re going to stop because things are not changing as quickly as you thought they would.

Well, of course they won’t!

They won’t unless you focus on your input and trust the process.

You need to focus on what you’re putting in rather than what you’re getting out, especially in the early days. Just make up your mind, and start making small moves towards your goal.

Because once you learn how to frame things, once you stop being afraid of putting your ideas out there, once you stop leaving things to chance, once you find a sponsor, and when you learn to trust the process, things will start to change for you.

You will start to receive recognition for your work. You will start getting access to opportunities that you didn’t even know existed and your career will start to move to new levels.

Because, what I really, truuulllllyy believe, is that you’re great at what you do, and everyone should know.

Hey, thanks for reading. I’m trying to be consistent with writing this year, so I appreciate you reading this.

If you enjoyed reading this, then I’d appreciate it if you shared it with someone who needs to read this. You’d be helping them