All right, rock stars, it's time to do a little mindset shift around what it actually means to make a sale. So what if the reason that you're not making more sales right now has absolutely nothing, nothing at all, to do with needing more followers, needing to create a different type of content, or needing more qualified leads? What if the next sale that you make, the next client that you create, is already in your world? What if she is sitting in your inbox or already on your email list? What if she replied to something that you posted three months ago, or came to a webinar, or you had a conversation at the park or at the library, and she was interested in what you do, and she inquired about your services. And then, of course, life got busy, and the conversation disappeared. But what if you don't actually need to find more people or do a better job with your writing or your content? What if you need to just get more comfortable selling to the people who have already expressed interest, who are already here right in your world? So today, I'm gonna give you a ridiculously simple sales practice that you can use right away this week to create more opportunities for somebody to say yes that are right within your current audience and your current existing ecosystem. And we're gonna talk about how you're never going to get comfortable and then go out and start selling. You're g- only going to get comfortable with the idea of offering people your work and selling by putting in the reps. So this five-step system is gonna help you put in those reps. All right? So lace up your sneakers or grab your favorite beverage, and let's go. Hey there. Welcome to the Mindset to Market podcast, your go-to space for practical tools and solutions to the everyday challenges of being a creative and soulful entrepreneur living in a material world. I'm your host, Deborah Smith, a holistic business coach and marketing strategist with 17 years of experience. I help my clients bust through mindset blocks and learn daily marketing practices that balance personal wellness with financial growth and impact. I'm here to offer you support with creativity, mindset, practical how-tos, and getting into imperfect, messy action so you can experience daily breakthroughs as you grow. If you're a purpose-driven entrepreneur building an online business, you're in the right place. Let's dive in. All right, soul-aligned soulpreneurs and heart-driven, purpose-driven, mission-driven people of the world, shout out to you for caring enough about other people that you're trying to start a business to do it. Um, I see you. And today, we're talking about something that I think most entrepreneurs make way too complicated, or at least more than it needs to be. So the question is, what do I need to do this week to create a sale or create a new client? And in episode 140 of this podcast, I shared a way to sort of diagnose whether you actually need to clarify what you're selling or maybe build some strategic assets and how to be on the lookout for sneaky ways that you can get stuck procrastinating building more marketing pieces than you need when really you're just afraid to take action on some sales tasks. So the question is, what can you actually do this week to create opportunities for somebody to buy something from you? All right, so I wanna kick this off with a little story for you about why I think so many people, specifically women, would do almost anything in their businesses except having to actually sell. So early on in my first business, we were seasonal because we only had a permit to vend from April through October. So during the off months, I would pick up, you know, consulting work or other random jobs. And so one winter my friend told me about this opportunity to join a sales team in Midtown, and they sold paper, actual paper, like reams of office paper, which sounded like potentially the most boring job on planet Earth to me. I remember thinking, "Well, I can sell, but, you know, okay, I'm good with people. I'm comfortable talking to strangers. How hard could it possibly be? All right, I'll check it out." So I applied, and I got an immediate response to come in for a training session, like, the next day, which red flag right there. But okay, positive attitude. Let's see what this is. So I get to this little generic office in Times Square, right in the smack in the middle of midtown Manhattan, and the first thing that I notice is that the people who are running the training seem very young. These are all guys in maybe their mid-20s wearing cheap suits, and we're all crammed into this little office that looks like somebody rented the set of office space for the afternoon. And all of us trainees are sort of looking around at each other like, "Is this normal?" None of us knew what to expect, and then the team leaders come in, and the hype rally begins. They're yelling things at us. We're supposed to repeat things back to them. There are full group chants happening. It seems like something you would expect from, a soccer team before their championship game or, a crew team rowing together. And then they start yelling people's names and announcing how much paper they've sold. Like, they're shouting people out. Everybody's clapping. People are literally cheering for strangers who sold paper, and then suddenly, somehow we're jumping up and down. And they've got the whole room clapping and jumping up and down and yelling about sales. The training started at 9:00 AM. By approximately 9:15, I was scanning the room for an open door and trying to figure out, "How can I slip out of here without anybody noticing me?" And by the way, I was wearing heels, so you know, after doing literal calisthenics, uh, and clapping and screaming in heels for 15 minutes, they finally explained what the actual job was. So they wanted us to go out, walk around New York City, go door to door, walk into businesses, and cold sell people reams of paper. I was genuinely cringing and also laughing and trying so hard not to seem disrespectful and rude. I wound up staying through the entire training because apparently I'm too polite. Even while I'm being held hostage at a paper sales rally, I just, like, could not leave But needless to say, I did not go back the next day and pursue this job because honestly, I remember thinking, "If this is sales, then I want absolutely nothing to do with it." And I think that this is why so many have such a hard time with the thought of selling because, or say literally, "I hate sales. I don't wanna do sales." Because yeah, if, if that's your mental picture of selling, same, I hate it too. Literally, if selling means hype and pressure and manufactured enthusiasm and bothering strangers and trying to convince people that they need to buy something that they weren't even looking for in the first place, I'm out. So we've gotta sort of take a different approach to it, right? This is the mindset shift around it, which is not to say that they were not selling. They definitely were selling paper, but that was just one particular culture and method of selling. And within that training, they did teach a lot of their type of skills. So what we can extract from me surviving that training is that selling is a skill set, and it's something that you can develop. And actually, almost every entrepreneur is gonna have to develop this at some point, especially if you're a solopreneur. But good news is you don't have to become the guy in the cheap suit who's, you know, screaming at the top of his lungs about how many boxes of paper Steve sold this week. You just have to become comfortable saying, "This is what I do. This is who I help. This is what I'm selling. This is what it costs. Would you like it?" And that is where mindset enters the conversation. Because when you start to look at selling as just another skill set that you can learn and practice and get better at, like every other skill set that you need to run your business, then it can minimize some of that discomfort, right? Because putting yourself out there and selling something, actively selling, creates the possibility for rejection. It creates the possibility to hear no. It creates the possibility to be ghosted. It creates the possibility that you're gonna put something out there and will get no response at all. Whereas posting another reel, you know, writing another blog, creating another piece of content doesn't necessarily do that. It just keeps you in creation mode. But if you follow up with a woman who asked about your program three weeks ago, you're creating the possibility for a rejection. If you ask the former client if she's ready for another level of support from you, it creates the possibility of hearing no so if you're not practiced at doing those things, and then you get the rejection or you get the no, that can feel incredibly vulnerable. It can feel like proof that you're not good enough. It can feel like you're just never gonna get this. You're just not cut out for this. Like, I've heard so many people say, "I just don't know if I'm cut out for this." But they have not taken the time to put in the reps, practice, and learn this skill set, just like any other skill set that you're gonna have to learn in your business. Remember, there was a time when you did not know how to create something in Canva, where you didn't know how to set up a Google Doc, or you didn't know how to vibe code something in Claude. All of these skills are learned skills, and you got better at them by practicing, or you will get better by practicing. And selling is no different. And I think if there was one mindset shift that I want you to take away from this conversation, it would be this. It's that you don't get comfortable selling or with the idea of selling, and then go out and start making sales. You get more comfortable selling because you have already sold. And think about literally any other skill outside of your business that you've ever learned as an example, right? You don't learn how to cook, for example, by reading recipes. You actually have to turn the stove on. You don't learn how to play an instrument just by reading music theory or reading a book about it. You've gotta pick up the instrument and sound terrible for a while. And same thing with speaking on camera. You're not gonna get good at it by waiting until you feel completely natural. You're gonna have to record and get your reps in and scrap the first 10 tries. So somewhere along the way, we have decided that sales should be different, right? We're supposed to be clear on every money block and eliminate every fear of rejection and become completely confident, and then, then we will be killing it. We're gonna be ready to sell because we've done all of these other things. But just like every other skill that you develop, the way through the discomfort is to put in the rep, right? You're gonna get more comfortable following up by following up You're going to get more comfortable saying your price out loud without hesitating or diminishing it or, you know, shaking by saying your price out loud. You get more comfortable making offers by making offers. You learn that somebody can say no, and the Earth continues to spin on its axis, hallelujah. And sometimes you follow up with the person that you're terrified of bothering, and they say, "Oh my God, thank you so much. I've been meaning to get back to you." Right? So they're never... You're never gonna get that response if you don't put in the reps. So this is where I wanna get practical. And like always, if you want to do this exercise along with me, you can hit pause, grab a piece of paper, a notebook, or open a notes app or whatever, and we're gonna right now build a sales practice for this week. This is something that I do with my one-on-one clients all the time, and we're now doing this inside the sales studio. And this is a great practice, so I want you to stick with me and do these five things this week, and then let me know how it goes. All right. Starting with number one, you're gonna choose what you are selling. So answer the question, what are you selling, by choosing just one thing. This is not your entire offer suite. This is not every possible way that somebody can pay you. What are you actively selling that you could sell this week? If I had a person ready to hand you money, what is it that you are available to serve and sell? And you definitely don't need any kind of fancy website or packaging or visual assets. You need to be able to answer the question, what is it, who is it for, what does it help them do, what does it cost, and how does someone buy it? And if right now those answers aren't clear, that's okay. That's just useful information. That's literally, that's just data. So it should be easy enough to answer those f- five questions. Um, but you can't consistently sell something that you can't clearly articulate, so you do need to have those five questions clear. So number one, what are you selling? One thing that's very clear. Number two, who is already right in your world who is already interested in that thing? So before you go looking for more leads, before you go trying to attract and magnetize new people, I want you to look around your existing conversations, relationships, people who have responded to your content, anyone that you know who could benefit from that thing that you sell. Look in your DMs. Look at the people who have replied to emails. Who's attended a webinar? Who have you had a conversation with where they said outright, "Oh, I'm interested in that"? Did somebody download something that you offered? Who asked a question about, you know, what you're up to these days and then loved hearing that you have a new business? Who said, "Oh my God, I need that," right? Who told you, "Uh, not right now, but..." and might need a follow-up? Also, who has worked with you before? Who did you have a consultation with? Uh, who's been engaging with everything that you publish and just really loves what you do? Maybe somebody who disappeared halfway through a conversation. Your next sale might already be in that list of people. So instead of looking for new people that you have never spoken to or ever connected with, I want you to look right at the people who are already in your world. So number two is who is already here? Number three, I want you to get five reps in this week. So here is a challenge for you, and everyone can do this, and you can't tell me you can't do it, because you can. I want you to create five opportunities this week for someone to move one step closer to buying something, the thing that you're selling. Now, for everyone that's like, "But Debra, I don't have the thing that I sell clear yet," go back to question one and answer those five questions. And again, you do not need anything else but clarity on those five questions. And I'm not saying, by the way, make five sales. I'm saying get in five sales reps, okay? So what are the reps? What could that look like? That could look like following up with someone, sending one email about your offer to somebody who might be interested. It could look like inviting someone into a conversation, it could be reaching out to somebody who's already worked with you and had a great experience and getting a referral or a testimonial. It could be publishing something that clearly connects the problem that you're talking about to the thing that you sell, right? There are certain pieces of content that are sales-focused content., It could be telling somebody your price. It could be making an actual ask and saying, "Would you like to work together?" So any of those things qualify as a rep, and I want you to do five this week Five sales reps. I know, it's scary, but I also know you can do it, right? You can do all of those things. And don't try to cheat and just make five pieces of content, because then you're procrastinating. I want you to actually move and shift the energy around this. All right, number three is to get in five sales reps. Moving on to number four, I want you to pay attention to what happens. Pay attention to what happens, because here's the other thing about practicing sales stuff. Reps don't just create confidence, they create data. So you make an offer and somebody asks you a question. They're not clear about your offer. That's data. How about you say the price and you discover that multiple people hesitate. That's information. You send an email. People click on one particular sentence or idea versus another, right? Like A/B testing headlines, that's data. If you have five sales conversations and three women use almost exactly the same language to describe their problem, hello, you have marketing messaging. Marketing is a nine-letter word for testing. It's just collecting data, refining your process, and you can't do that , until you start putting in the reps. So the more actual human beings that you talk to, the less time you have to spend sitting alone trying to imagine what actual humans are thinking and researching. It's like, just have conversations and they will tell you, and that's gonna make your next sales rep so much easier 'cause you're gonna have data to, to refine it and work with. So step number four is I want you to pay attention, make notes, track things in your tracker, and see what happens as you put in those reps. And then five, number five is to follow up. Please, before you decide that you need to go seeking new people because nobody liked what you put out there, look at the people who have expressed interest and follow up with them. And again, this is not forcing someone to buy something. You're continuing a conversation. They're allowed to say no. They're an adult. You're an adult. You're allowed to ask. And the more you practice that exchange without attaching your entire self-worth to it, the easier this, like, this whole thing gets. Okay, so your sales practice this week, here's your homework. I'm really excited. You're gonna choose the thing that you're selling, identify the people in your world who might need it, and then get those five reps in. They're gonna follow up anywhere necessary, make invitations where there's an opportunity, and pay attention to what people tell you. And then you can do it again next week, and next week, and the, a week after that. This is the practice. And remember, you don't get good at selling by learning more about selling. You get good at selling by selling. This again is exactly why I created my Soul Aligned Sales Studio. I wanted to create a place where we actually put in the reps, practice the reps, and then look back and look at the data, look at the leads, and ask, "Okay, what needs to happen next week?" And then get some more reps in, and then come back and celebrate the wins, discuss the losses, and talk about what happened, adjust the parameters, and do it again. So if that's of interest to you, by the way, there's a completely free level of the studio where you're gonna have community, access to trainings, and be able to participate in a monthly sales event. And of course, for anyone who wants to go deeper, who wants more strategy and more accountability and time with me specifically, there's also a premium level where we're doing this work weekly, in multiple sessions a week. So I'll put all the information in the show notes per us. Always feel free to DM me. But wherever you are right now, I just want you to remember this: you do not need to become some slick salesperson. You don't need a cheap suit. You don't need to jump up and down. And I promise you, I will never, ever make you chant about how many reams of paper you sold this week. However, you do need to practice. So go out there, get your five reps in this week, and I'll look forward to hearing from anybody who's brave enough to share with me. If you have a takeaway from this that you find useful, I would love to hear it. And if you enjoy this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you could leave it a rating or a review. You can do that right where you're listening to it. I know on Apple and Spotify, you go to the show page and then scroll down, and there's a little place where you'll see some stars, and you can just click rate this podcast. And it means the world to me. It's so helpful. Thank you in advance for doing that. And I cannot wait to hear how this goes for you, so between now and next week, stay grounded, get in your reps, and may you be vibrant
