Sorry for the long silence, I have been busting my ass. After my pity party last month, I resolved to do more and to do better. What does that mean, exactly?

For one thing, I signed up for a 7-week sales and prospecting class. Yeah, if you thought I was uncomfortable as fuck showing up at banks with popcorn gifts, attending random meetup groups, and reaching out to friends and acquaintances asking for referrals, that was just Level 1, my friends. For the class, we have to call people up (Yeah, who do you know who actually still uses the phone these days, right?) and do the drill/script. OMG, I was so freaking stressed about it. I stalled and stalled and finally only called Bubbey and a neighbor that first day. The goal for the class over the period of 7 weeks? 100 people PER WEEK. In other words, 20 new people PER DAY.

It’s an interesting predicament, bc that day, I experienced a total return of my previous social anxiety/paralysis from ages ago. It’s probably been over a decade since I made myself that sick with worry and stress over talking to people. After I got home from the first class, I cried and felt like shit. I rolled around in bed thinking, “I just don’t have it in me. I can’t do this. I don’t know how to speak the ‘language of sales’.” And then after a night of feeling completely paralyzed, I knew what I had to do.

This is the path I have chosen. This is part of the business. No matter how great I’ll be as an agent– managing the projects, keeping all parties in the loop, finding resources and studying the market, I will never get to that point if I don’t get clients. It all boils down to getting the clients.

I realized too that I was taking everything too damn seriously. I was hanging on every word, every pause, every statement. I didn’t like this or that or word choice… I mean, I can be pretty damn particular. But if I’m going to enroll in the class, I have to believe in their approach. I can have all my doubts and skepticism, but I have to at least try the exercises the way they are intended to be done. If I try and it doesn’t work, then I can do things my way, but I can’t be rejecting methods before even starting, you know?

It was really a moment where the rubber hit the road. I usually get so excited about learning new things, getting in on the trade secrets or whatever… I have always considered myself coachable, but am I really??? Hell, no. I was resisting like crazy. But I caught myself, and now I’m going to do something about it.

So now I’m trying to hit my numbers. I’m still incorporating a little bit of my style in doing things… for example, I am contacting people by email first and then following up with the call (that’s how I did my cold-calling work when I was at the fuel-cell company). I just like the idea of giving people some background/intro and heads up so at least they know who I am when I call. But shit, I’m going to follow the script and go from there.

At the trainings, my coach in the past has asked, “Are you a shark or a clam?” Clams get their food passively, by filter feeding. They sit there, hoping that food comes their way. On the other hand, sharks are bosses. They attack and take what they want. I am always amused by the analogies trainers use to motivate and inspire people. But heck, that shit worked on me. I’m a shark, goddamnit, and I’m going to start acting like one.