Blog Cover Image 1

What if you had everything you needed to succeed?

Posted by Carole Mahoney on 9/30/14 7:30 PM

Earlier this month I made my first trip to Seattle, WA for my first Sales Shebang event. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but I was looking forward to spending a few days with other successful women in sales. It marked a decided turning point for me as I left the comfort zone of all my previous marketing experience and entered into a new arena that quite frankly- I wasn't as well known for.

I was hoping to learn things from the more experienced sales coaches and trainers in the room. Things like; do I need to be teaching at a university for credibility? Should become certified by someone to coach others in sales?

Leading up to the trip, I had a lot of to-do's on my list that included things such as relaunching the website, getting the book campaign launched, and drafting the introduction for the book. I was driven to have my stuff together before I left. I felt like I needed to have my ducks in a row to be successful. 

Sound familiar? As daring as we are sometimes as entrepreneurs, we all get to those places where we have our doubts of our own abilities. It is at those times that we focus on the things that we tell ourselves are necessary to do in order to be successful. The fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) is that we couldn't possibly pull this off without the perfect business plan, slick marketing campaign, certification, degree, employee, etc. 

Confronting the fear and dancing on it.

While there, I was fortunate to have a few conversations with Jill Konrath. I had just read her book Agile Selling and what struck me was that here was one of the most successful sales experts I knew, and she talked openly about her doubts, fears, and challenges that she also had to face. As I talked with her about my plan to write the book and use that to start a new chapter in my career she said something I didn't expect.

"You don't need to have the book done to be successful. You have everything you need to be successful in you right now."

It stopped me in my thoughts and stuck in my head. I had heard, read, and been flat out told this before. For some reason, this time it got through. So much in fact that I woke up in a panic at 4 am the next day and wrote the following in my journal: "I have everything I need to be successful. Oh, that's scary. Because if I fail, I have nothing to blame it on. Putting up all these things in front of me that I have to do is really just self sabotage. Just do it."

Now what? Shit! Then that means there are no reasons not to try, no reasons why it failed, no reasons why it couldn't succeed, no one's permission that I needed, no predetermined fate. I decided that going for a run would help settle my mind.

 

 

At the end of my run, I came across someone dancing in the park area in front of the hotel. There was no music playing that I could hear.  Was it someone still feeling the effects of the night before? Nope, I recognize her! It was Diane who had been helping to coordinate the event. What is she doing ? Curious, I walked over and Diane shared with me how she doesn't like to run, but she does like to dance. So she finds an open area, pops in her headphones and be-bops away. For her it was just about getting her exercise in. But for others who saw her, not caring and doing her thing, it compelled them to look as I did. When Diane asked me to join her, that same thought entered into my head. "Oh, that's silly, you will look ridiculous and stupid." And that's when I knew I needed to do it.

Diane didn't let what others thought stop her from doing her thing. She didn't seek permission, she wasn't a professional dancer, she just let herself do it.

I can't totally explain how, but some sort of switch flipped. I'm calling it the f'it switch. Resilience maybe. Snapping back. Not caring. Maybe it is seeing the fear there, realizing it's normal and a sign for the exact thing you should be doing.

So since then, when that negative thought tried to peek out, I picture Diane. And I remember to say f'it more often, put the headphones in, and let the freak flag fly. Life is too short.

 

 

What's your f'it idea?

What's the thing that if you had everything you needed to succeed, you would do? Do that.

Take a little dance step towards it everyday.  Focus on that as your one thing. Find the song in your head the makes you dance on your fears. The world will be a better place.

Do you need a sales coach?

 

Topics: entrepreneur