Ditch Your Suit

I’m a tank top, shorts and flip-flops kind of girl. Suits are definitely not my thing. Yet, back in 1999, every month I put one on to lead a live workshop on cash flow. I hated putting on a costume so that the participants would think I was professional and smart.

I totally trusted my ability to deliver the content and give them breakthrough coaching, but I did not believe they would see me as credible. I was young and talked like a 1990’s Valley Girl (I still talk like that!).

I thought I had to step into a different persona for people to take my advice and buy my products and services. It wore me out but I continued doing it until one day...

I was smacked upside the head with some feedback at a leadership program. The group told me that I was quirky, bold, unpredictable and intense. I cringed at ‘quirky’. The leader told me that the next time I led my cash flow workshop I should embrace my quirkiness.

My thought on that? "Oh, hell no! These people came to learn about the serious topic of money and I’m going to act like a goofball?"

As I pondered this advice a little longer, I changed my mind. The way I was doing it wasn’t working anyway, so what the heck?! I went for it, even though I was shaking like a leaf inside my body. I wore a funny T-shirt with a pun about money. I wore pants instead of a skirt. And I made a CD with upbeat songs about money to play as people entered the meeting room.

I let loose. I acted like my quirky and bold self. And leading workshops became a JOY. And sooo easy.

The real kicker was that I sold more products and coaching that first night of authentic facilitation than I ever had before. And my selling pitch hadn’t improved, only my connection to the audience.

Fast forward almost twenty years and my success is dependent on my quirky ways. My brand is built around it so I don’t have to try to convince people to buy, I just leverage what comes natural to me. Easy.

What gifts might you be squashing down as you push to gain credibility, do your business right’ and make more sales? How can you let your hair down and allow it to be a more natural process based on your God-given genius?

Let’s meet at the nearest bar, put on some bumping music and dance on the tables! Fun is the fastest way to success…whatever YOU find enjoyable.