It’s taken me almost 3 months to realize how much the patterns of negativity were engrained within me.

I’ve recently realized how much I’ve been tainted by the negative mindset of corporate life.

Perhaps it was the focus of my job as a manager to find problems?

Perhaps it was the influences of the relationships within my life?

Whatever the reason … It’s like a filter that was placed over my eyes that only allowed what was wrong within the world (and other people) through.

Now … don’t get me wrong … I view myself as a fairly positive person and it’s not as if I saw everything as negative.

However … this week I feel as if I’ve become unstuck.

Instead of focusing on what is wrong … I’m now finding myself focusing on what is right within the world!

It’s like I’m now seeing the beauty within everyone and everything.

I find that I’m able to appreciate (is grateful the right word?) the little (and big) things within my life.

By starting each day from this perspective … I am now able to begin from a place of strength.

I’ve already seen benefits of this by being able to see the positive strengths within the personal and professional lives of my Clients.

I’m excited and curious to see what other insights are ahead … to continue to expand my awareness as I move forward on the journey to establish my place within the world.

Over the past week I’ve had more advice (both solicited and unsolicited) then I can recall in recent history.

The piece of advice that is coming up most often is … you guessed it … sales (and marketing).

In a nut shell … the advice is … to make it on your own … you will need to learn how to sell.

At first I thought … groan … I hate sales.

But … as I thought more about it … it made sense … if I want people to purchase my services … if I want to make a living … build a thriving business … then I will need to learn how to sell.

So … this week … my goal has been to understand sales.

There are so many aspects to sales and marketing that I need to understand.

I’ve come up with more questions then answers … some of them are:

• What is my brand … my niche?
• Who is my Customer … who is my Client?
• What do they need? What do they value?
• How can my products and services help them?
• What are the benefits of my products and services?
• How can I influence them to see the benefits of my services?
• What is my USP … unique selling proposition?
• Why pick me over all the other possible success coaches?
• How can I sell … what do I say … how do I act?

What I’ve realized is that … this is only the beginning … sales is not something that you study for a few weeks and … voila … you have the skill.

It’s something we have been doing since we were born … that we are doing today … and … will continue to do until the day we die.

Every interaction we have … every impression we make … every word we speak … affects the sales process.

Very quickly I’ve come to realize … based on an excellent conversation over lunch (thank you Alex) … is that the key to successful sales … it to build relationships … to build connections … to establish trust … and ultimately … to help people buy.

Now this is not some gimmick to persuade people to buy your product or purchase your services.

Because the goal is … to help people buy … without trying to sell your services.

Yes … you heard me … without trying to sell.

This is truly an outstanding concept … and I feel that I’m just touching the surface here … that once I truly embrace this … that this would really work.

It just seems to make sense … the best sales interactions that I’ve ever had … two things were present.

1. The sales guy (or gal) I was dealing with wasn’t trying to sell me anything
2. I felt that the sales gal (or guy) had my best interest in mind

I recall a time when a salesmen even told me that his product was not right for me.

Now is that powerful or what … instead of pushing the sale … and potentially damaging the future relationship … assuming that I would be dissatisfied … he told me that the product was not right for me.

I’m going to be applying this concept over the next few weeks … and I promise to report back how successful it is.