Welcome to another fascinating episode of Resilient Entrepreneurs, the podcast that explores the stories and strategies behind successful entrepreneurs in the hope that something you hear will leave you a little richer in your business. We're your hosts, Vicki and Laura and today we are excited to introduce sales trailblazer, Rana Salman. Dr. Rana stumbled into sales more than a decade ago, she was a research nerd - her own words - and became fascinated by the art and science of selling, along with the ethical responsibility that comes with it. We can't wait to get into that side of the conversation. And as a consultant entrepreneur, Rana has authored a book this year to help people sell and she does that for a living. She helps us all sell better. So if you're a person who thinks sales is a dirty word, tune in and you just might be thinking differently within the hour. And if you love selling, this episode will surely fascinate you. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, Rana.
Thank you for having me, Vicki and Laura, I am super excited to be here and really talk about one of my favourite topics - how do we sell, and how do we sell value? So thank you for having me.
Oh, I like that, how do we sell value? I think it's gonna be a great conversation and one that entrepreneurs need to have because a lot of us don't like sales. And I'm gonna say us because I'm in that category a little bit too, so I'm really excited about where we go with this. But first, before we get too deep into that, so much of who we are and who we become is shaped by our childhood experiences. So tell us what we need to know to really understand who you are now and your journey to entrepreneurship.
I love this question, I totally agree with you. I was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the suburbs of Beirut, and lived there for the first 11 years of my life and then emigrated to the United States when I was 11. We came here for the dream. My parents sacrificed a lot to get us here. If anyone knows the history, when I was, the first 11 years of my life in Lebanon there was a civil war, so I got to experience some of those hardships but I was always surrounded by such a loving family, and parents that really believe in their kids doing something in their lives. And so when we came to the United States, our goal was, how do we go after our dreams? My dad and my mom made it clear that the sky's the limit, that no one can hold you back, it is in your control. But it does require hard work and discipline and my parents demonstrated that. They were very, very hard working and seeing that as a child, I recognise that in order for me to go after my dreams, it's not just about talking about it, it's also about putting in the time, the effort, the work, the sacrifices to get there. So definitely our childhood helps us in becoming who we are, especially with the values and what we learned from our parents.
Oh, yes. And I feel like you must have seen the worst of humanity and also been blessed with the best of humanity in the way that your parents, their attitudes and their approach to life, having gone through such trauma.
So the great news is that we were so blessed because we weren't as impacted as other families, right. Where we didn't lose family members, where my parents always found a way to find a job. And you'll see that in the first chapter of my book where my dad always was able to find a job to help feed us, to help make sure that we're okay, to help us recognise that there is a lot of hope. And also, we saw the best of humanity in both worlds. The United States when we came here, teachers believed in us - we were four kids that were trying to fit in, in trying to figure out this system, and yet there was so much goodness in people in the Midwest in the United States, that were so helpful in making sure that one, we are fitting in, that we are loved, that we are getting the help that we need. I couldn't be where I'm at today without my teachers and I say that in my thank you in my book, because they're the ones that saw something in this little immigrant girl that was fighting because I wanted it so bad. And so, I would say I am very blessed in both worlds that I got to see, yes some challenges, but I think like you all talk about in Resilient Entrepreneurs, we can't be where we are today without facing some form of adversities that we have to overcome and learn from. I’m not saying that it's all good and Pollyanna, but life is about challenges and the more we look at challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, I think the better entrepreneurs we will become.
Yeah, absolutely. A therapist once told me that children having challenges sets them up for success later in life, because they've already overcome things that kids that grow up in that Pollyanna perfect world, where parents just manage everything and everybody's happy and it's easy and maybe there's wealth in the family and there's no worries there, those kids have a lot harder challenges when they get out into the real world because they've never had to build any resilience as a kid. So there is an advantage of having a bit of childhood trauma, believe it or not.
Yeah, I am going to be honest, I never had trauma so I'm very blessed, right. So I can't talk to anyone who had severe trauma but I think challenges and being tested, I've been tested, that's part of the whole journey of being an immigrant, recognising that you’ve got to work much harder than a lot of other people, just from a language perspective, right, Laura and Vicki. And also recognising that I don't know this system, I don't know how to navigate, my parents didn't know about SATs and that I needed tutoring and we didn't have the means for that. So all of that was for me learning and figuring it out. And granted, I wasn't the smartest one but man I developed the grit and I recognised that the way I can win is I can outwork anyone. That I have the grit, that if I'm going to fall I'm going to get back, right back up and we're gonna figure it out and keep doing it till we get it. And I think that's part of when you're raised in an environment where things are not given to you. And the word hustle is not the most positive word, but to me it is about the hustle. You're going after your dreams, you’ve got to be creative, you’ve got to be scrappy, as long as you do it in an ethical way, you don't hurt people and you do the right thing for your customers. That's where I think my journey and learning how to navigate and being an immigrant, and also paying it forward just like you all are doing right, we've all been there, so it's also about paying it forward to others that are trying to figure it out.
Yes, and the recipe for success in selling. So you've just written this book this year and I bet a number of those lessons that you've just described are packed into that book, full of value. What would you say are the top three things a person must do or must know, to be successful in that hustle game of selling?
Yeah, I think understanding your customers, your buyer persona, who are you selling to? And what problems are you trying to solve? And staying laser focused. When you're an entrepreneur and what I've learned, I was raised with entrepreneurs that had restaurants and car dealerships, if you're an immigrant you always have these family members that have.. so I learned also about selling and about understanding your buyers. Know who you're targeting, know their business plan, what business problems are you trying to solve, speak their language, stay laser focused on helping them. And when you land your first customer, delight them, make sure that you're taking care of them, make sure that you deliver and over deliver on your promise. Because what you need is this one customer that then they can refer you to others in their network, and then you start growing and growing. And doing the right thing, people want to work with people that are honest, people want to work with people that will say ‘hey, you may not need this, but you may consider this’. Another thing Vicki and Laura that I would tell entrepreneurs is qualify out quickly. If you recognise this is not the right customer for you, hope is not a strategy.
I think as entrepreneurs when we start, we have these happy years. We need to make sure that we are spending our time in the right places and as you progress in your practice, you're going to recognise that there's an opportunity cost when you're spending time with the wrong buyers. Now again, as entrepreneurs when you start your business you’re gonna test and you're going to have to learn, right? I've learned a lot of lessons where ‘OK yeah, maybe this is not my buyer persona. OK now let me focus, let me take this learning, and now stay focused, and really look at my package and improve it.’ And that's where selling value becomes really important. Value is about putting the customers at the centre of everything we do. So when you identify your buyers who are going to see value in your solution, now you’ve got to learn more about them. Now you’ve got to prepare and understand these buyers and then you’ve got to reach out to them.
And that's where you also need to start building your social selling brand, your brand on LinkedIn, on wherever your buyers are, and then you start building that familiarity. And you find something, a reason, a compelling reason for why you want to meet with them. And you're speaking their language when you meet with them. That's when you got to bring in your research, you’ve got to say something about their business, and then you’ve got to share insights - they want to know, like you guys are amazing marketers, right? So when you're meeting with your prospects, they want to know insights about what's happening in this industry. People are truly living in this hybrid world. How can you help me? How can you help me increase brand awareness? How can you help me increase brand recognition? How can you help me convert these leads? That's what we need, you to speak their language, share insights, share customer stories, create customised solutions, and make sure that we're actively listening to our buyers. And that's why sales is hard, as entrepreneurs, for us it's hard because we're passionate toward what we're doing. So we show up and I call it ‘Show up and Throw up’, you show up and you throw up how great your product is. And the buyer is saying, but you don't know anything about me or you haven't even asked me questions about what I need. And so that's where it's also really important that we're listening.
So what's your thoughts on niching? Because it's really hard to speak the language of so many different things, right?
Absolutely. And that's what you're going to customise, I absolutely believe in this. The data shows us that our customers want us to personalise that communication. Our customers want us to understand their business needs and that's where those buyer personas become so important, right? If you're selling to a VP of Operations with a small startup versus a CRO of a Fortune 500 organisation, they have different language to speak, different needs and also the industry that you're speaking to, healthcare versus IT versus the higher end, they have different nuances and we need to be able to speak their language. And yeah, I agree with you Laura.
So getting to know your customer is something that we know needs to be done. What tips do you have for our listeners to really understand that? Is it going out there and networking with people who could be potential clients and asking them what they need? What is this body of research you talk about? And I will note that in your own words, you describe yourself as a research nerd. So I'm wondering how much science is behind this Rana?
When I started selling, I'm not gonna give up my age, I've been doing this for close to 20 years now, we didn't have a lot of what we have now in terms of information. Now in today's world, we have so much information about our buyers. So for example, if you're meeting with an organisation at a minimum level, you’re going to look at the person's LinkedIn profile, you’re going to look at the company website, you’re going to look at if you're going after a public company, you're going to be familiar with earning call trends and earning calls and really understand more about their business, and you got to connect the dots. Now the beauty about where we're at today is we have AI tools now that can help it even be more efficient, right? So for example, how are we using ChatGPT as an assistant in our research, how are we using other tools like Perplexity and other tools that are out there that can really help us in quickly understanding the buyer and the industry. And then going on social media, such as LinkedIn and other social media where your buyers are and understanding about the human themselves. You can learn so much when you look at someone's profile, their posts, who they're connected to, because guess what, you may be connected to someone that they're connected to. So that's this common connection that helps build trust and social proofing, especially if you've worked with their connection. You can also find common causes that you both care about to help build that rapport, as well as your as you're looking at the organisation and some of their posts, you can also identify some compelling events that are happening that you can tie your conversation to. Because at the end of the day what you want to do, you want to be relevant to the human in front of you. No one wants to talk to a person that all they talk about is how great their product is and have a slide filled with great logos. The customer, the buyer is thinking, well that doesn't apply to me. And so doing that research, doing that upfront background preparation helps you in standing out from the crowd. And we all know that we need to do that but it is one of the things that's not being done because people try to cut corners. Trust the process, the sales process starts with that planning and that preparation and we’ve got to make sure that we are doing that to differentiate ourselves.
And I think it's the humanity of it, is exactly it. Right? It's building relationships, it's respect of your client, yeah?
Oh, you're so right Laura. It’s respect, right. And this is what I want to tell your listeners. It's a gift to land an appointment with a buyer, with a prospect, even if they end up not buying from you. They are taking that time with you. Time is finite, right. That is the only thing I can't get back. And when I have an executive saying, yes, out of all of the salespeople that have reached out to me Rana, I want to meet with you, that is a gift that we need to make sure that we are not taking it for granted, and the way we show up matters.
And when you talk about respect that includes first impression matters. That includes; Do you have an agenda? What about your artificial communication? The way you show up, your attire. Are you sending the message that is saying, I am here to help you. I have taken the time to address in a professional manner to show you that I am here to help you. Another thing is your attitude, right? People want to buy from people that have a positive attitude. There's research around how attitude impacts our performance but it also impacts other people's performance. It's contagious. So how are you showing up for these zoom calls? With a problem solving mindset and helping your buyers and respecting their time and adding value? Really great point, thank you for pointing that out.
And so you've just spoken about human relationships, let's go back for a second to the AI tools. Discuss a little bit more of some of the tools that you find useful that entrepreneurs who may be in a small team, they haven't scaled their business, they're looking to just do a lot of these sales calls and outreach themselves. Any great hot tips for them? And how are you using ChatGPT effectively?
Really great question. So I'll share with you some free, also great tools. I mean, the idea of being an entrepreneur, you're scrappy, right, you may not have the tools to buy. And so using ChatGPT as your assistant is something that I would recommend. What you don't want to do is you don't want to lose your voice. So if you're using ChatGPT start a draft and then put it in there and ask for their input or ask to improve it and then bring it back. And also go back and forth as if they are your editor, as if you are working with someone where you're trying to improve it, so they can learn your voice, so that's one.
We also need to be aware that the data is up to 2021 so there are things that may be missing after that with ChatGPT.
Another thing and it's not an AI tool, or at least not yet is, is just using Google. Googling someone's name and putting it in parentheses and clicking the news section and seeing have they been in the news lately and what is important to them. You'll be surprised at the information that you'll find. And I'm not saying read them all, just read the titles. And if you're meeting with a VP or Senior Director that just presented at a conference, and they interviewed them, and they have a highlight about it, wow, wouldn't it be nice to start the conversation saying wow, I just read your most recent interview with CIO magazine and one of the things you mentioned is that you're working on XYZ digital transformation. I understand from my customers that these are some of the things they are going through. Tell me more about your experience. Wow, how does that change the conversation? Now, it's about you. So even as simple as using Google.
There's another tool that I've used, it's called Perplexity and Perplexity what I like about it, and it's free, is you ask it a question, it's going to answer it in bullet points so it's easy for me to scan, but as a researcher it also gives me links to the resources where it found the answer. So it goes all out on the internet and pulls that information and it also gives you specific follow up recommended questions, things that you may not have thought of. So that's another tool.
And then there's AI Prompt Genius. And AI Prompt Genius helps you, it's a free extension with ChatGPT that it helps you create smart prompts and you can save them. So for example, if you're an entrepreneur and you are targeting maybe two different industries, you can create this smart prompt where you can change those industries and get all of that information really quickly. And so those are some of the tools.
And of course LinkedIn. I don't work for them, I don't get anything out of it, but it is a tool that if you are an entrepreneur, you need to be using it and you need to not be afraid to go out there and start building that brand because that's how you're going to connect with people. The thing about psychology, there's something called the Law of Familiarity and what you're trying to do in sales as an entrepreneur is you're trying to become a familiar face. And social is a way to build that familiarity, to build that awareness so when I reach out to you, Laura, or Vicki, I'm not this stranger. You're like, oh, man, I've seen Rana, it feels like I know her, so let's give her - yeah, it's more, it's a higher chance of them saying, yeah she gives me a compelling reason to meet with her, I'll give her 15 or 20 minutes. And also every entrepreneur needs to be selling their product, they need to be the first salesperson, because if you can't sell your product, how are you going to train the new seller that's coming in. You’ve got to be the one meeting with those executives and those buyers and make that sale, and not be afraid of selling. Selling is a noble profession, if you have your mindset as about solving problems, solving problems.
Such sage advice. Now with LinkedIn, I think all of our listeners are probably getting them - those cold, cold, cold contacts. Someone from out of the blue saying, Hey, I see we have something in common. By the way, I've got all this stuff to sell you or I can find you 300 leads a week, why don't you work with us? Let's have the conversation.
Yes, let's have the conversation. That's the worst way one can do. That's where you can hurt your brand, that's where you become a commodity. When you're trying to get in front of someone, you’ve got to build that familiarity first. In my opinion, you’ve got to make sure that you are reaching out, looking at their posts, showing up on their posts with something that is intentional, something that is helpful. And it's also about when you're reaching out to them, you're reaching out to them with a reason and sharing insights and warming up that relationship and then finding a compelling reason why you're meeting with them. And not about 300 leads, that's where the executives that I interview, that's what turns people off, is when you assume that this is the ROI they want. How do you know they want these 300 leads, right? Have you had a conversation with them? So you have to make sure that when you're reaching out and asking for these meetings, you've already started building that familiarity, you start showing up on their posts, you're sharing insights that are helpful, you're looking at a strategy of how you can connect with them. Do you know someone that knows someone that can reach out and refer you to them? Or is it, there's a real event that happens where when you're reaching out to them, you're starting that conversation with something that is going on, that compelled you to reach out and you're not selling, you're just creating interest, you're creating interest to help them in terms of sharing insights. And so that's what prospecting is, it’s landing that sales meeting and creating that interest. You're not there to sell them. People that think prospecting is about sending an email and selling you a product, that's the wrong way. That's where you become a commodity and you go to the spam folder.
Yes, the dreaded spam folder where.. Yeah! I'm so grateful that you brought up LinkedIn because LinkedIn is such an undervalued platform and people think of it as just a place to get a job, put your resume up, then forget it until you're looking for another job. But it's such an incredible networking space that if done well, can propel you. It's a place where people are willing to take you as a contact where they might not be on other social platforms. If I don't know you, I'm probably not going to add you as a contact on Instagram because that's where I share my family stuff, right? That's more personal, more private. Well on LinkedIn, it's professional and if I know who you are, or we have somebody in common, I'm much more likely to accept you as a contact because I'm always thinking of networking, great to get to know somebody else. And you can use LinkedIn to really start just building relationships in a huge network very easily and in a little bit of time because that's the beauty, and that's the message I want to get across is, the beauty of LinkedIn is one post a week, commenting on other people's posts, giving value, sharing information in your industry, positioning yourself as an expert in what you do. And then when somebody does hear about you, or you do make a connection, they're gonna go research you, and the first place I research people is on LinkedIn these days, that's where I want to go, find out who you are, what you've done, I can see your resume, I get where you've worked, I get an idea of the types of positions you've been in, what industry, what do you talk about, what interests you, do you take time to give valuable responses because you can see all that so easily on LinkedIn, it's an incredible platform, I really wish more people would jump on that.
I'm glad you're mentioning that Laura, this is where entrepreneurs, it's a kind of a field that makes us all equal, no matter if you're small, if you're big, you can as a human being and as you're building your brand, it gives you a voice. One of the things that I would tell your listeners is that as you're updating your profile, make it client facing, optimise it for social selling, meaning think of your clients that are going to check your LinkedIn profile, just like you said Laura, and make it relatable. So when they're reading your summary, when they're looking at your recommendations, they're seeing other customers similar to them are recommending you and also they're seeing that you are relatable to them, and you understand them. Because what you want is for your prospects, or folks that you're building the network with, to say, Wow Laura understands my business. I want to compare to other people that are trying to get in front of me, Laura understands it so I want to give her a few minutes to have a conversation. Also when you're sending a LinkedIn connection, personalise it, just like you said, what compelled you to want to connect with me? And it's not just because we want to learn from one another right? Do we share common connections? Is it something that you posted that intrigued me to reach out to you? Or did you comment on my posts that really also helped me by recognising that, hey, you liked some of my posts so why don't we connect, right? Mentioning some of these to create that connection.
Thank you, Rana, thank you so much. And as an entrepreneur yourself, can we maybe switch it a little bit back to the entrepreneurial journey and what it is that you love most about that journey?
Oh I love solving problems and making an impact. I think you all know that as an entrepreneur yourself, you wake up every day with this, for me, with this hunger of how am I going to help my customers, my prospects? Because if you can't sell, if you're struggling with selling, that's a big problem for an organisation. So how can I be one of these key players that can help executives, that can help sellers improve their sales performance. And also solving problems. I think being an entrepreneur, it's exciting to have a problem and to try to figure it out with your customers of how we're going to solve this. I think in possibilities and if a problem comes my way, my research brain starts thinking okay, so how can we fix it? What can we fix? What can we do? And what does success look like for us? So entrepreneurship for me is about making an impact, always going back to my ‘why’ and also solving problems and being creative. There's no, ‘I can't do this’, the question is, why not? Why not?
I think you've exactly summed up what an entrepreneur is. The person that sees the need, that is creative, that has the problem-solving mentality because that's it, that's exactly what we do. We see the problem, we need to solve it and often the problem is something we started out with, that we needed and we solved for somebody else, where we’re creating products or services or helping other businesses solve their problems, no matter what you're doing, it's all those things. And therein is where resilience comes in and that's what makes a really successful entrepreneur. And that is a never-give-up attitude. The grit you talked about earlier, 100% is that and that's awesome. What would you define success as then what's, what's your definition of that?
Yeah, so success to me is about perseverance and discipline. So perseverance for me is just keep going. You're gonna fail, you're not going to let failure define you. You're gonna learn from it, you're gonna fail fast and fail forward. And this is where you got to think, next chapter versus going back and dwelling on these mistakes that we've all made. I mean we're humans, how are we going to learn if we don't make these mistakes? But there's also discipline. I think discipline is so important as an entrepreneur. People talk about motivation. Well, sometimes it's hard to be motivated, because you're getting a lot of challenges coming your way but when you have that discipline and that routine and that structure, and you're focused on your goal, that helps when there are times when you don't feel motivated. And I think that's really important with entrepreneurs is to make sure that you have that discipline, and that you're building that grit, and that perseverance. It's not always, you look at LinkedIn and you see these amazing posts about great successes and great stories. But what people don't talk about is the challenges that come with being an entrepreneur. It's scary, it's lonely at times and you have to believe in your why to keep going. So those are the two things that I believe define success.
So what do you do to help you stay disciplined? Do you have any special routines or things that you personally do to keep yourself there?
Absolutely. Every Sunday I make sure that I go through, what am I going to do in the week? What are my goals that I want to accomplish? Also every morning I wake up, I go on my run and then I come back and I dress up as if I'm going to meet with a client. I make sure that I am up and going, and I have on my calendar, you look at my calendar, I block times for prospecting, I block times for meeting with customers, so those are some of the disciplines that I put in place to help in making sure that there is some form of a structure. I've learned that you also have to make sure that you're taking care of yourself. And I'm the worst person to talk about that because I'm a workaholic. And when I wrote the chapter about mental health and rejection I recognised this is an important topic. And for me, I've been running all my life, I started running when I was seven or eight years old, in the mountains of Lebanon where my grandma was, and I took it with me, and it's the best thing for me because when I'm running every day it's a space for me to be present and to also just get my energy up and stay focused and disciplined.
And also surround yourself with good people, the people that pull you up because it is hard, right. And if you're with someone or with a group, or whoever you're surrounding yourself with, that doesn't pull you up when you're down, it's a hard journey. And that's why you got to also look at your rolodex of friends and people in your life and that's the time where also you can recognise that maybe they're not the right, some of them are not the right folks in my life. And I think that's important also to do, to nourish your soul and to be around people, like I have an amazing husband, I've been with him for 20 some years, and when I'm feeling like, oh my gosh, why can’t I just go back to the corporate world and make this big commission check, because I know I'm good at what I do. He's the one that comes back with, that's your dream, you have a purpose. Let's remind you of your why. And I think that's really important because we're humans, it's very easy to step back and say, am I built for this?
Yes. Has there ever been a time when you nearly quit? Or went back to the corporate world?
I didn't go, no. There are times of course, there are times when you question it, especially when you lose a deal that you work so hard on, or when you get rejected on something that you truly gave it your all. Of course we're all humans and our brain and our emotion, our limbic system gets activated. And we're like, man am I put up for this? Right? The way I address that is: number one, I acknowledge my feelings, I think it's important for us to say, You know what, it sucks! It sucks! And then I also give myself when I lose a deal, or when I am, when I feel like I failed. I give myself a grieving period, I call it 24 hours and that's when I go and run and I get frustrated and ticked, and blame, and ahhh, but then after that I analyse and I go, Well, what happened? And let's be very honest about what happened, what are some things I did really well, but what were some things that are in my control and I take all that, and I then, 24 or 48 hours later, I move forward. And that's what I learned as an immigrant, as someone that has hustled all their lives, you got to move forward because if you're going back and dwelling, that's not going to get you to gold. So yes, there are times, but I've never ever thought that I wanted to go back because it's bigger than me and my dreams and doing what I want to do and the impact that we're making.
I love that. The person I've been following recently is Cody Sanchez, and she says that it's all hard. No matter what you do, is hard, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're an employee, it's all hard. You just have different challenges, so pick your hard, right?
Yeah, that's a good one.
Isn't it? I love that. I’ve been wanting to share that. It's so true. So you know, as entrepreneurs, it is challenging, but when you are living in your purpose, you're focused forward like you said, the success comes, whatever success means to you is what it means to you. Whatever wealth means to you is what it means to you. It could be freedom, it could just be enough. You know what your enough is up to you as well. My enough might be different from your enough and the billionaire has a totally different mindset on that, but we're all working hard, challenged and it's just picking which level we want to play in. What game do we want to play? Do you want to play this game of entrepreneurship, where it can be a whole lot of fun and a much bigger roller coaster than being an employee for a big corporation where you said, the commission checks can be sweet, but those golden handcuffs can be tough to get rid of too. So it's just pick your hard, pick which battle you want to fight. And the grit and resilience is important for all of it. So the one final question. Yeah, the one final question we have to ask, of course, which I think we've touched on a lot with what you've said, but to sum it all up, how do you define resilience?
Yeah, resilience to me means the ability to bounce back from adversity, no matter how tough the situation is. It's about facing challenges and finding strength. It's about refusing to let failure define us. And it's very easy for us, especially if you're an overachiever, you’ve got to have that growth mindset, the determination to learn and grow from these stumblings that we have. And always think about, okay, now, let me fail fast and fail forward. Something that I've learned early on my career, learn from it, don't dwell on it. And also like you said Laura, sometimes people try being an entrepreneur and if it's not what they want to do, even if it ends up being that, okay, this is not what I want to do. It's okay too, right? It's okay to say I tried it. The worst thing is that if you're on your deathbed, and you say, what if, what if. To me, resilience means also to trying things and if it doesn't, if it's not your heart, it's okay to also say, I did it, now I can say, at the end of my life that I tried it, I tried it.
Live without regrets. Yeah, as much as possible live without regrets, take the risks, accept the failures, move forward, fail forward as fast as possible because every failure is just a lesson, it's just a lesson towards success.
It's hard, right. And that's why you also need from a financial perspective, when you're getting into entrepreneurship, you also want to make sure that you have the capital, because the first few years don't expect to be making the income that you used to make, right? So being also a realist and recognising that you're going to have to make sacrifices because that predictable revenue is not coming in. And so you’ve got to also plan that as well and recognise that you are okay living with less than you used to live. And you also have enough in your savings, in your account to also be able to live, to pay your expenses, I think there's also a level of responsibility that you also need to think through.
Yeah, and I think that is also determined on where you are in life at that moment to what your level of responsibilities are. A 20-year-old right out of college still living in his mom's house doesn't have the level of responsibility of someone that has a family and kids and a mortgage and a lot of other weight on their shoulders. So where you are depends a lot on the level of risk you can take but I always believe the risk is worth it. And a good quote I read recently is like Leila Hormozi, Alex Hormozi’s wife; if you know their story, if you don't, go check it out, it's a really interesting story they have, but they lived for a time in her parents’ basement, they were broke - they're multi multi millionaires now - and she said to her husband, I will live with you under a bridge and keep doing this if we have to. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's passion.
That’s passion, right? And they did it. They figured it out and worked it through and grit and resilience makes a difference. So thank you so much. This was an incredible conversation, and one that we should have more of, especially around sales, because that tends to be a place where people feel a bit uncomfortable. Selling still feels uncomfortable for a lot of people, but you don't have a business if you can't sell it to somebody. You know, we all have to do it. We got to do the sales. And the better we can get at it, knowing that it's about relationships, and I love that message. It is about relationships, it's about that network. It's about being authentic, being real, selling something you believe in makes it so much easier, you're not selling somebody else's snake oil medicine, you're selling your thing that you're passionate about that solves a problem that makes an impact, there's not a problem to sell that.
You gotta solve a problem, right? That's where that passion and that problem solving, I call it competency and character. You have the character and then you have the competency. When you bring those worlds together and take a customer centric approach, that's what you should look at selling as. Not as a car salesperson, a cheesy person trying to push their products on you.
Exactly. It's all about the customer. Yeah, think about them first. Thank you so much Rana, this is an incredible conversation and really appreciate your time today and hope to talk to you again soon. Thanks so much.
Thank you Vicki and Laura.
Thank you.
