Most of us go into business for one of two reasons: (1) We want to make big bucks or (2) we want to do what we love. If you’re just doing it for reason 1 alone, you might as well stop before you get started. Money is nice, sure, but you’re going to make yourself miserable!

I’m a hustler.

Okay, not that kind of hustler. You know, the kind of hustler that chases after greatness and doesn’t back down…ever.

We all have to do things that make us a bit uncomfortable. It happens to everyone. If you’re not encountering a scary situation every once in a while, well, you’re probably not living like a normal person. I have touched onto this topic before in an old episode of A Minute with Mandee and I feel it’s an issue that regularly needs to be addressed.

I started reading a book called Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk (I’ll be posting a book review on that soon) and this book is all about doing what you love, as impossible or crazy as it may seem. I’m not even through the first chapter yet and I already know that I’m going to absorb the words on each and every page like a dry sponge absorbs water. Ohhhh yes. I can feel great things ahead.

The truth is, if you love your job, those hard tasks are going to get a lot easier. It won’t be so hard to pick up the phone and make a call out to someone who might be freakishly intimidating because you know it’s a necessary step to reach your main goal. I’ve made some uh-MAZ-ing connections by doing just that and after a while, those calls weren’t so scary, they were actually great fun! Sure, I used to shake in my boots before making that necessary step, but the end result was and still is truly worth it. And the best part is – it gets easier every time!

Looking back at the video episode I posted above, I have to think about what I would’ve lost had I not attended the networking night mentioned in the video. I am now very cozily situated in a nice office in the same building where the wine tasting was held. Go figure! My cost for rent each month is FABULOUS, and my home is only two miles away. I get to drive back home for lunch every afternoon! And to think I may have missed the opportunity had I let my feelings get in the way.

So, if I could leave you with some advice, it would be this. Next time something a little scary comes up or you seem “too busy” to get involved, push those feelings aside and do it anyway. The end result will likely be much better than skipping out.

If I could share one random piece of wisdom with you that I’ve learned by being an entrepreneur, I would urge you to always prepare to the best of your abilities. When I first decided to write this post, I asked myself, What would be a worthy example of preparation that I could use as guidance for my readers? I’ve chosen to share with you a brief story of my experience with horses as a young teenager, or rather, the lack thereof. (Sorry if my writings always end up leaning towards something or other equine…deal with it. )

At 13 years old, I was a horse-crazed kid who thought I could do anything. Our first horse, a bay mare named Gracie, was as much of a spitfire as I. In a nutshell, Mandee + Gracie = Disaster. I specifically recall the day I chose to ride her without professional supervision. I hadn’t learned enough about riding yet and I didn’t really know what I was doing. But, of course, THAT couldn’t stop me! I saddled her up that morning, jumped on, and proceeded to walk forward. What I didn’t realize was that the saddle was not girthed properly, and it wasn’t long before it proceeded to tip to the left. Before I knew what was happening – BUCK! BUCK! BUCK! WHOOSH! Ker-thunk. (The whoosh and ker-thunk part was me flying through the air then hitting the ground.)

The horse bucked me off that day because I hadn’t taken the time to properly prepare and learn in advance. If I’d learned how to saddle up correctly I may have avoided a painful landing on my right wrist.

Other tasks such as writing a research paper, public speaking, job interviews, event planning or business meetings are all things that also require careful thought and effort ahead of time. I’ve tried doing all of those things without preparation and it just doesn’t go off too well. Maybe you’ve even heard me say before, “Oh it’s fine, I’ll just wing it.” Ha. That can work once in a while, but most times it’s just me not wanting the extra work.

I looked up the definition of “wing it” on Google, just out of curiosity. This is what I found:

To wing it is an idiom that means to improvise, to do something without proper
preparation or time to research. People often talk about winging it when they
have to do something difficult that they didn’t have time to prepare — like a
make speech or give a presentation. They might say something like "Sorry if I
seem a bit disorganized, I’m totally winging it." You tell people that you’re
winging it, that you’re improvising, so that they won’t expect too much from
you, or so that they will be more forgiving if you make a mistake.

(Source: http://www.betteratenglish.com/english-idioms-to-wing-it-to-improvise/)

I think that winging it is okay on occasion if you’re truly stuck in a situation where it’s absolutely necessary. Everyone has to be able to do that when needed. However, if you constantly have to improvise then you will never do your very best! That’s what I’ve found in my own personal endeavors. When you prepare, you are more likely to handle yourself more professionally and achieve higher success.

That’s not to say that you can’t do something that you’ve never tried before. There’s a first time for everything. Give it a whirl, see what happens, and then do everything in your power to learn more about the task at hand. It’s a great way to learn new things. :)

If you’ve been following my recent tweets or Facebook status updates from throughout the past few days, by now I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been spending endless hours studying cold-calling techniques. While I consider myself a confident sales person, I have oddly enough been finding myself hesitant to make calls to potentials clients lately. Why? is the question I kept asking. Was I afraid of encountering hang ups? Did I not want to hear the word “no”? I could not put a finger on it.

None of those things bother me too much, because I know it’s all part of life in sales. While there is always that “ugh” feeling when someone rejects me, it’s obviously not personal and it would be silly of me to take it as such.

After some serious deliberation, I finally determined that part of my problem was that I really didn’t know what I was going to say when I picked up the phone. I’ve made my share of calls to drum up new business, but I’ve always had some sort of connection with the potential client. When I had absolutely no connection whatsoever, well, I simply wouldn’t pick up the phone (and unfortunately, those names on my “need to call” list would eventually be erased from my wipe-off board).

It hit me last week that I couldn’t last very long with this way of thinking. If I didn’t know how to approach new sales leads, I needed to learn, and learn fast. So I hit up SwagBucks and Google, hoping and praying that someone out there on the internet had offered their secrets to selling print advertising over the phone.

I came across numerous resources, though most of them were trying to sell me on a training course of some sort without offering me any assistance. I did, however, find a free report from Wendy Weiss that was very helpful. (If you need any tips on cold calling, be sure to visit her website.) Wendy’s report, combined with several other notes I jotted down from various web pages, began to make me feel more confident in my ability to book meetings and sell to complete strangers.

That said, I have a list of leads I’ll be calling over the next few days. I’ll let you know how it goes.