Is this belief holding you back?

My favourite TV show is "Ted Lasso," and my favourite line from any episode came when Ted meets his boss's mother.

"I love meeting people's moms," he says cheerfully. "It's like getting an instruction manual into why they're nuts."

I'm going to take that same idea and twist it: I love getting angry comments about something I make - it's like getting an instruction manual into where that person feels stuck or unhappy with themselves.

Let me explain - Alice and I have a persistent critic. Every now and then, this person leaves us a one-star review for our podcast and accuses us of shameless self-promotion. These remarks are left anonymously of course, so we can't reply or ask for more details. We just get these negative little turds dropped into the reviews every few months.

But I find it so fascinating that this person has one consistent complaint: you are promoting yourselves. The implication is obviously that this is wrong, shameful, and something that needs to change.

But instead it just leaves us bemused: "Of course we're promoting ourselves. And your point is...?"

Of course, we all know what the point is. Self-promotion is supposed to be bad. Especially for women. Tell me how many of these things you heard growing up:

"Don't show off"

"Don't get too big for your britches."

"Don't make a show of yourself."

"It's not seemly to (fill in the blank)...."

"Wait to be asked before you (fill in the blank)

"Little girls should be seen and not heard." (my personal favourite)

I could go on, but I'm sure you heard the same or similar.

And even though most of us don't get angry when someone else promotes themselves, I do think many artists are holding themselves back because they still harbour these beliefs. They equate sharing their art with showing off and it makes them feel uncomfortable.

And many of these people react by not sharing their work on social media. Others do share their paintings, but they do it almost apologetically. (I'm sure you've seen more than one post where an artists says 'I know this isn't very good but...')

The problem with this is obvious - we can't buy your work if we don't see it. And it's very hard to get excited about your work if you're not excited about it yourself.

I also see many artists who won't send email newsletters for fear of 'bothering' other people. Often their email sign-up page says something like "don't worry - I won't bother you with too many emails." (If I'm signing up, it means I want emails!)

Last week, Alice spoke to Faye Bridgwater on Art Juice (see below for the episode). Faye is brilliant at promoting herself and her art. She does it with humour, joy and unending enthusiasm. Check out her Instagram to see what I mean.

As a result, Faye has won awards, had sell-out exhibitions, and been invited to appear on podcasts and even TV shows. She believes in her art and she lets people know about it. She doesn't worry about people who don't like her work or don't want to hear from her - she just focuses on talking to those who do.

During her interview with Alice, she revealed that she has an alarm on her phone. Every morning at the same time, it goes off and the message "Be Your Own Champion" appears on the screen.

It's there as a reminder and an encouragement. Faye knows no-one else is going to champion her work as well as she can, and I think we can all learn from that.

So this week, I want to encourage you to do one thing that feels a little uncomfortable. Tell your Instagram followers how much you love your current work, or contact a gallery, or submit for an exhibition - it doesn't matter what specific action you choose, just that you do something to champion yourself and your work.

Let's hear it for shameless self-promotion!