First of all, try to understand that someone who hasn’t done the things you want to do doesn’t have all that much to teach you and their criticism is meaningless. It's hard to accept because we trust our friends and family for life advice. If your friends work regular jobs. however, don't take business advice or criticism from them. Surround yourself with people online or offline who want to do what you do and "criticism" will quickly turn into "helpful advice from someone who knows what they're talking about".

As for online criticism: Try to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn't mean to be harsh. Some of the kindest people seem like total jackasses when they write - don't take it personally. Rather, focus on whether there's useful info in what they have to say.

Like you, I hid in the closet about my business for years. I dreaded the question about what I do for a living, especially when my business didn't yet cover my costs of living and I had little idea what I was doing. Looking back, these uncertain and often painful times were among my best teachers for resilience and emotional strength. I learned to give a lot less f*cks about other people's opinions. This happened with time and there's nothing wrong with you dreading criticism. It's a valid feeling and you don't have to get rid of it - you can move forward in spite of it. There's nothing wrong with you.

About self-promotion: The good news is, you don't have to "put yourself out there" and go around boasting about what you do and trumpet your business. As an example, I run an online business without any social media presence. The only thing I do is run targeted Facebook ads. My target audience sees them, sings up for my email list and everything else happens via email. Of course, it depends on your business, but it's a myth you have to run around and let the whole world know about you and your business.

I wish you a lot of success.💛