For the Newbies: A Welcome + a Primer

Dec 23, 2024

Welcome! If you’re new here, hello.

I’m Cher. I’m a publicist who writes about the tricky topic of needing more attention – for your life, your business, or your creative work – but not feeling at ease with asking for it.

I’m primarily interested in what it takes to build the skill set and the capacity to ask for attention (without guilt or shame).

What’s more, I’m intensely curious about the ways that you can build capacity through practicing acts of resistance.

You’ll find me talking about:

Asking for attention
Receiving attention
Transferring attention, or sharing the capital of influence – what I refer to as visibility dividends – that we gain through attention
Divesting attention away from structures and systems that want us to stay distracted
Directing attention (e.g. how you show up in a room and keep people engaged)

Turns out, humans, especially ones socialized as women, have an incredibly challenging time asking for attention in both personal and professional spheres.

We are very interested in doing impactful, creative work that liberates ourselves and others, but we have a complicated relationship with telling people about that work – even if we know that lots of other people seeing our work and knowing about it is a requirement.

And, of course, we don’t want to be labeled as “overly self-promotional,” “needy,” or “self-centered.”

If that’s you, you’re not alone. As a publicist, an aspiring novelist, and a single mama, I bump up against those thoughts more often than I would like.

That’s why I’m obsessed with writing about this topic.

Through essays and Q&As, I’m exploring how we can own our desire for attention, build the skill set and the capacity to ask for it, and then welcome it when it arrives. Because, when you’re a creator, a healer, or an organizer – there is no other way to make an impact than to seek and then to leverage attention.

Because, honestly, so what if we’re doing it for the attention? IMO, that’s exactly what our creative, liberatory work needs.

So, when I talk about “asking for attention”, what do I really mean?

When I talk about “asking for attention”, I’m talking about:

Pitching your work to podcasts, publications, organizations, and events
Asking people to share your work - what you’ve written, produced, dreamed up, co-created
Asking people for reviews for your podcast, book, or program
Telling as many people as possible about what you’re working and how they can support you
Raising your hand

You can see more topics that I’ll cover here.

WORLDVIEW

I’m a single mother to a very small person. I’m a US-based first generation, multicultural daughter of an immigrant from Taiwan. I’m cisgender, heterosexual, and I have very high-maintenance curly hair.

I’ve also been an entrepreneur in the PR industry for nearly a decade, many years in which I played the game and many of which I’ve decided not to.

You can learn more about me here.

INFLUENCES

Throughout my writing, you’ll notice references from voices like Octavia Butler, Angela Y. Davis, Tara Brach, bell hooks, Mona Eltahawy, adrienne maree brown, autumn brown, and many, many other contemporary thinkers related to social justice, liberation, and love. I’ll always include a hat tip or a mention when referencing their work.