By Pretty much whatever you do in life, you have to be selling something. It might be ebooks, software, bicycles, houses or even yourself.
And when I say “sell yourself”, I don’t mean you should go out on the street corner and do you know what!
I mean any job you’ve ever had, you got by… selling yourself. Selling your skills. Selling your ability to overachieve in that role.
I know it can be tough.
To be honest, I use to suck at it.
When I left drama school, yes I was an actor for a while, we had to sell ourselves. If ever there was a profession where you had to sell yourself, it’s acting. Anyhoo, I was goddamn terrible at it.
I mean seriously bad.
How I managed to get an agent, I still don’t know, because I wouldn’t have taken me on back then.
It wasn’t until I worked in fashion, that I learned to truly sell. Because if you want to get anywhere in fashion, you’ve got to network, and networking is… yup, you got it, selling yourself. It’s just you generally do it in a bar.
Now you’re probably wondering what that one trick is.
The only thing you need to sell anything.
Well, that one thing is… stories.
Stories are in our DNA. They’re part of being humans. We used to sit round campfires and tell stories, nowadays we watch them on TV or the internet, listen to them on radio or podcasts, or tell each other them in bars and living rooms.
Our lives are made up by storytelling. We connect to others and make friends by the stories we tell.
If you follow that through to its conclusion, it means that if you want to connect to someone you need to… tell stories.
And in order to sell… you need to connect to someone.
It’s seriously that simple.
Some folks will try and make it all complicated and confusing. But it’s generally a load of b******s. Tell stories every day, day in and day out, and you will sell your products.
Michael
P.S. The proof copy of my new book arrived yesterday, and it looks pretty damn awesome. I did notice one mistake on the front cover which is now being fixed, and it should be ready to launch next week!
Here’s where to get on the early-bird list.
What do you think?