I’m reading an amazing book by Martha Beck called Finding your own North Star.
Early on in the book Martha mentions about how we can often base what we do on what ‘everyone’ will think or say.
When I did the exercise I actually laughed out loud because yes I’ve done it, and yes in reality it’s not everyone at all its just a handful of people and yet we can still base a decision on how they would respond. (There are answers of course but you’ll have to read the book )
I remember one of those times very clearly in my early social media business days. I had just started my coaching business I started posting, was just building my brand and I put a lot of time and thought into my posts but yes I was still learning.
I asked an amazing connection/friend of mine to create me some graphics – thank you Sarah Briggs. They were brilliant and I still repurpose them now as you can see.
My ideal clients were (and still are) Accidental Sales People so basically people who start a business because they are great at what they do, they either saw an opening or they wanted to break off on their own and start a business.
A by product of that of course was that they have to sell their services or products to stay in business, most Accidental Sales People don’t want to be salesy, they just want to help their ideal clients in a way that works for them.
I got lots of positive feedback, encouragement and support about the name and my wonderful visuals Sarah Briggs until one day I spotted a random post (not a comment on my post) and it was a rant about ‘what’s all this rubbish about accidental sales people?’
Subconsciously (and consciously I guess) based on one person I didn’t know I stopped using the phrase Accidental Sales People as often, even though I knew that was ridiculous.
Fast forward 6 years would I let the view of 1 person alter my course – absolutely not, it probably wouldn’t have had that impact on another day. In fact I’m now able to navigate and support my clients with this very thing.
Have you found yourself thinking twice about what you put out there wondering what ‘everyone’ might think?
Here is one of the fabulous visuals for all those Accidental Sales People out there to enjoy!
If you are struggling sharing who you are and how you help people I can help with that – just book in a no strings attached Discovery Call and by that alone you’ll pick up some nuggets to help you.