Taking Shots

A single idea can change how you sell: if you’re not taking shots, you’re not giving your business a chance to score. We start with a surprisingly relatable moment at the YMCA, where a brand new shooter decides to take 50 basketball shots despite being intimidated, missing a ton, and feeling clumsy. The payoff is not perfection, it’s evidence and momentum: making a few proves you can improve, and repetition reveals what to fix next.

From there, we translate the court into entrepreneurship and small business sales. Taking shots becomes outreach, follow-ups, pitches, partnership asks, networking, and simply starting conversations with the people who could say yes. We talk about why the goal is improvement, not instant mastery, and how “shots” create the data you need to get better at your sales process, your messaging, and your close. If you sell a product or service, we break down the simple math behind volume, conversion rate, and why a few wins can change your month.

We also pull lessons from traditional sales organizations that reverse engineer results: revenue goals map to the number of conversations required, and those conversations map to habits. Then we apply that thinking to real-world constraints like location-dependent businesses, plus a grounded take on ads: they work best when you already understand your audience and your conversion math, so your spend amplifies what’s working instead of covering what’s unclear.

If you’ve been hesitating to put your offer out there, this is your nudge to take the next shot, then the next one. Subscribe, share this with a business owner who needs it.

Transcript

Defining Taking Shots

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thanks for tuning in to Words with Serena and Friends. This podcast was designed to share words and phrases that entrepreneurs should be aware of and know in their day-to-day operation. I hope this helps you continue to build something beautiful and it's immediately helpful in your day-to-day operations. Let's get started.

unknown 0:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

We're recording now. Cutting my excess noise. Okay. All right. Taking shots. I like that. Let's see what Google Gemini has to say about taking shots because you could argue taking shots is a sling. But I'm curious on I'm about to start echoing crazily too. Okay. Like I'm I'm curious on what it defines it. So according to Oh, this is the urban the source. I think I want the urban dictionary. A reputable source of facts. Taking shots.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Wow, actually. It's not even in here. That's funny. I know what you mean when you say taking shots. Like you're saying take a shot at something. Right? Yeah. Or you're taking multiple shots.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yes. Okay, I'm gonna go back to my my definition. Taking a chance.

A Terrified Beginner Takes 50

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Oh yes, the famous quote: you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. That's it. Period. Yes. Yes. Why is that so important for entrepreneurs?

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yeah, so I my family and I just got a membership to the YMCA, and they have a basketball court there. My oldest son is like basketball's life. That's all he does, right? And so somewhere in my brain, I think I need to become a basketball player to relate to him, which is insane. I have no like athletic, like natural athletic ability in my body.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

You didn't play like basketball like in like school or anything, like record.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

I played basketball once for a league, and I got hit in the face with a basketball like so hard, and I was like, I'm done, like I'm never doing this again. And I've been terrified of basketball since like oh my god, black person afraid of basketball.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

That's the headline.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

So, but the other day while we're at the YMCA, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna take 50 shots. I'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna take 50 shots. And when I tell you, it was brutal. Okay, it was really, really hard. A lot of them were earballs, a couple of them were close and didn't make it. But I probably, if I had to guess, made somewhere between six to eight of those shots.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

That's a pretty good statistics. That's like 16%.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Now I would say most basketball players probably try to have like a shooting average of I would say over 40% for sure. Probably like 60%. I don't know. I'm not a guru. I mean, that's all right. Yeah, yeah. But starting out, it's like, okay, I I made shots. Yes. I got buckets. Yeah. Okay. Like there's a win in hand. Yeah. I think a couple things is the feeling that I felt when I actually made the shot. And that, like, especially when I made my first shot of like, okay, I can keep doing this, I can keep going, because I'm gonna make some more. Like, yeah, the odds are like they're in your favor, but they're in my favor. Yeah. Like I'm gonna make something. Yeah. That feeling of like, okay, I'm gonna miss the first 10, but I'm gonna make one eventually. And then also I think like something that was really relevant to me is so when I first did it, I was standing at like the free throw line and it wasn't that looking good. So my husband was like, just take like a step or two forward, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yeah, because you're not like in a in a game, like where you don't have to be over there.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

And as I'm doing it, he's like, Okay, you need to like bend your knees. You need to like, you know, stand this way or like, you know, extend your arm this way. And so I think it just allowed me to like the more shots I took, the more opportunities I had to perfect my form and like continuously improve. And so I think that's it.

Turning Misses Into Sales Skill

SPEAKER_01 5:29

But this isn't like the half-court shot from like the NBA games where you have to make it like you get a chance every time.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

And obviously, because I work with small business owners all the time, I left the YMCA thinking about how important it is as an entrepreneur to take shots, right? And that could be to like customers or potential clients, to potential partnerships, all kinds of things, right? And it's like, imagine you're selling, you know, a product or a service for$1,000 and you take 50 shots, even if you only make six of them, that's six thousand dollars. That's six thousand dollars that you weren't gonna make at all. Yeah, it wouldn't have existed. And I think the more you do it over time, like you're developing that skill of, you know, what does the sales process look like? What does the conversation look like? How am I being introduced to these potential people? Right. And like making sure you're standing in the right place and that those opportunities are in alignment. And so I think it's just a really good reminder of, you know, you make you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Exactly. That that is that's the quote.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

That's that's where it comes from. And yeah, I appreciate that example because it helps you you see it. Because we we tell entrepreneurs all the time to just like try try some things out and and test, but in the context of like the goal is improvement, not like I mean, it is making money. We're all here, we're all here to make money, but you're gonna improve along the way, like you will get better. And I feel like that piece, that piece gets missed. Like it's it's an ongoing evolution. And yeah, like I like that taking shots, taking shots.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

It also makes me think of when we I went to a youth expo, and there was an insurance agent who was there and he was on a panel and they started talking about like their sales process, which I think is so fascinating because I think that people who are in sales specifically have such a unique perspective on sales that entrepreneurs could really learn from. And he just talked about how like he, if he has a goal of making X amount of dollars a month and he knows he has to talk to X amount of people for X amount of people to say yes, and then those yeses equals a certain amount. Yeah, like he's able to work backwards. And you know, but you don't have that data unless you do it. Yeah, like you don't have the data without taking the shots.

Location Limits And Smarter Ads

SPEAKER_01 8:07

I think there's the data, but then also like people who are in sales, typically they're in like a larger organization who's like they yes, they've gotten that data. The other side is that data requires you to be honest with yourself. And if an entrepreneur is honest and they know how many times they need to talk to someone or how much time it takes, they can get a relative ballpark without too many like fancy dashboards and understand I need to talk to a lot more people to make this thing sell on its own. And if you look at that data in your own business, you would 100% say, I'm not taking enough shots. Like even I can say that, like for my own business, I'm not taking enough shots. Like I'm taking a couple shots, but I'm not taking enough shots to like fully be dependent on it. And that's something I'm working through. But I I like that example because it is it's it's in those sales orgs. Like they know they know they need a cold call, they need they know they need to go into networking events. It's just built into their like work and their mindset. There's a lot to learn from B2B orgs.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

And I think too, what's really interesting is, you know, we just had a conversation the other day about a local childcare provider and how they're struggling with their sales just based off of like location, right? And I think that like I think it's amazing that they know that that is something that's potentially impacting their sales. But I'm I would still be interested to know like what the actual data is and how many yeses they get out of based off of like how many interactions or showings or whatever their processes, like what is that percentage? Because I think too, like it would allow them to work backwards. Like if we are unable to change our location, right? If we can't change the environment that's around us, how many people, how many potential customers do we need to talk to to get to the yeses despite the environment that we're in?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah, that's like the the healthy perspective I think on ads. Someone I follow online, Shaniko, the strategist, she talks about that. She's like, it's it's the same thing. You know, you need to know how many people you're trying to get in front of, and then you can run ads for that amount. Like I have a strong opinion on ads. Like, I don't necessarily love them for someone starting out, but when you've been in business four or five years, you know how you know what your conversion rate is. You know out of how many people you talk to, how many people you're getting a yes from. So it's like it's actually math. And once you know that math, you can run ads for it and make your dollars work for you because you know what that conversion is.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Right. And on top of knowing that what that conversion is, you have a better understanding of who your audience actually is. Exactly. Well, that's true. Yeah. What are the traits of the people who say yes? Exactly that you should be targeting.

Wrap Up And Quick Intros

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And you can get more targeted. And that's why I like it, even to the word taking shots. It's like there's taking shots, and then like once you have a bit of data, like when Paul pointed out, okay, maybe you should take a couple steps forward. Because the goal is improving your form and improving and being better, but you can take more targeted, calculated shots, but there's still shots, they're still taking a chance at making it in or making a sale in this case. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Cool. Well, thanks for joining us here on Words with Serena and Friends. You are the friend. Hey. Hey.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Do I need to do like an intro? Like, hi, I'm Jasmine.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Like, oh, yeah. You do actually, yes, do an intro because I I need to figure out I can edit it on other platform. I think I can move stuff around like that. So yeah, do an intro. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Well, I'm Jasmine Anderson. I am the director of small business and equity programs at Leap, which is a local economic development organization. And in addition to that, I would say I'm like a multi-passionate, serial entrepreneur human who wants to do all the things in life.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Awesome. Okay, I'm gonna stop recording and I'm gonna call you on teams. Thank you for listening to words with Serena and friends. If there are words you'd like to hear us explore, please reach out because we would love to learn in real time with you. You can work directly with me and the team at Basebuilder Labs.com and follow me at Serena Engineer on YouTube for more information, learning, sharing in real time, and how to help you reach your goals.