The kind of drive, sensitivity, ambition, and initiative it takes to create a small business can also create a nervous system that’s more hotwired or reactive which builds a foundation for anxiety.

What makes you great can also destroy you. What you survive can enhance you.

Tune in as we talk anxiety, performing, and finding the courage to Fear Less. Sell More.  in my recent guest-appearance on the Small Business Radio Show with Barry Moltz.

 

 

Finding the Courage to Move Forward

For everybody it’s different, but there are a couple principles that I like to believe were very helpful to me when it came to finding the courage to move forward through my anxieties in sales.

I turned it into a game.

Everything I did was based on my ability to talk to people. I don’t make products, I’m a sole proprietor.

Every time I got on the phone it was as if I was on stage, the curtain was going up and I was going to give the performance of my life. I brought so much zeal and enthusiasm that it tended to dissolve my fear of “will the person like me? Will I do well? Am I going to succeed?” and all of those anticipatory anxiety-questions that can strangle the life out of you.

So in my case it was turning it into a game and doing something that I love, performing.

Does performing in sales disconnect you from who you are?

Not at all. It’s more of an extension of who I am. And not just an extension of who you are but how you live and what you’re experiencing in the moment

Let’s be clear, performing is not being inauthentic or exaggerating. It’s coming from the heart and being the best, biggest life version of yourself.

When you’re performing in the way of business and living in the moment, you can listen really well to the tone of the other person, to the intention of the other person and you can bring the same mindfulness to your words when you speak in the same way an actor would.

That sense of self is the highest, most enlightened good. It’s a crystallization of everything that can be great in human interaction. That’s why I think sales can be an extraordinary career.

Fear Less. Sell More. An extension of the writer in me

I hate to admit this but I find most business books boring. They generally have a few great ideas and the rest of the book is 35 different ways of saying the same thing.

My book is only 125 pages so I didn’t strain.

I didn’t want to be pedantic. I didn’t want to have the prescription laid out.

I understand that it’s not a traditional approach and while it may not work for some, it was what worked best for me.

I thought a story would be best.

I wanted to engage people’s imagination and bring a 3-dimensional humanity through the story so that I could convey ideas that would be useful to folks, and hopefully the process would be entertaining.

Fear Less. Sell More. – The Fable & How to use it to Achieve Success

The fable in Fear Less. Sell More. is loosely based on my experience.

A past business associate and I had each started our own companies but unfortunately, his business failed. So I asked him to come and work for me.

He had struggled his entire career in sales so I began to train him.

This is the story of one man hiring another individual to join his fim with one caveat, he must go through this training and learn all of the lessons. The Training is very specific and unique and I believe reflects how I developed the level of success I’ve had.

But that’s all I’m giving away!

It’s a short-and-sweet, entertaining read that can actually help you learn how to Fear Less. Sell More. Check it out. You’ll be happy you did!