I’ve been in sales my whole professional career and I’ve found I love influencing people on things I believe in whether it’s a story, something to do for fun, a place to go, or a product. I’ve had quite a bit of success in professional sales and have been told I’m an inspiration to many up and coming professionals. It all began after high-school when I was 18 years old and started painting houses. The experience turned into a 5 year business which aided in financing my college education. I started knocking on doors and had to present myself and my painting company to homeowners in order to win their confidence and convince them to go with me instead of the next guy or company. I also had to show I knew what I was talking about and not just some punk kid. I actually got good enough in these spontaneous door to door presentations that I began getting jobs left and right from people who hadn’t even really began considering having their house painted. I would just walk through neighborhoods and look for houses that definitely needed painting or that I thought were faded, needed touch ups, or were simply (in my opinion) not the greatest colors!
I’ll never forget the first customer and house I landed. It was a white house with a black shingled roof. Again, I’ll never forget this white house or my very first discovery of convincing ability – or you could call it that anyway. Never in my life had I been so panicked, caught off guard, or thrown into an instant situation that needed explaining before I even had a split second to think. That’s when I learned about the calm needed in unexpected situations, steady breathing with deep breaths, and the important ability to be able to look as if everything is going perfectly to plan even if (as I like to quote from the movie Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carry), “our pets’ heads are falling off!”
It was my first house to paint all on my own. I had been working for a guy and his painting business the summer before when I quickly realized the money I was making could be 6 times what it was or more and that I could do this on my own. So here it was a summer later, presentation all done, bid accepted, and all my new equipment on the driveway. I was ready to go with the sprayer hooked up and ready to suck up the first 5 gallon bucket of white paint. I decided to start on the roof with the chimney and work my way down – if any of you have painted before I’m sure you’re thinking what I now think – why in the heck did I choose to start there and with the chimney??
So I lay my shields down at the base of the chimney so I don’t spray the black shingles with the white paint. My heart is pumping with excitement as I’m about to spray for the first time EVER! I never had actually sprayed before – I always did the prepping, brushing, taping, caulking, back rolling, etc. Don’t get me wrong – I had seen numerous houses sprayed and knew the motion to take and how to spray certain areas – I figured it couldn’t be that hard. I mean it looked so easy! So I do a couple practice swipes and passes on the chimney as if I were spraying already just to get the feel. I thought to myself – no problem here – just like those few practice swipes. I looked around one last time to make sure everything was in place (and that no one was around outside watching as I was a bit nervous) and then went for it! I pulled the trigger and did the motion I had just practiced before and to my astonishment the gun made an unfamiliar sound when the paint came out and in stead of making a nice fanned coat on the area I was aiming for – paint shot out from both sides of the gun about 30 feet in each direction as if it was a large T shaped double barrel squirt gun. I was shocked and completely horrified! Before I had a chance to even think about what just happened I hear a car pull into the driveway and look over my shoulder to see the homeowners just got home. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had any type of work situation where you absolutely panic, but this was the beginning of my first! The roof was pitched at just enough of an angle on the front that there was absolutely no missing the total of about 60ft of white paint splattered across the black shingles.
I had no idea of my skill set in customer assurance that was about to surface or even what that meant as this was my first experience in going with the flow portraying the fact that everything is great and surely no mistake had been made in choosing me or my company.
I had no time to think of anything to say other than the truth – which was my first and number one lesson I hold onto in the business world when dealing with customers - to always be honest and straight with people and most of the time they’ll appreciate it which makes everything much smoother when hic-ups happen as there will always be hic-ups with humans and technology.
The owners got out of the vehicle and my mouth just started moving. I’m not entirely sure what even came out and if everything I said made sense as it was extremely hard hiding the panic that I may have just ruined their roof and might need to replace it. I do know that I made a small sheepish laugh suggesting not to worry and pointed at the spray gun and said out loud as I realized the mistake myself, “I forgot to put the tip in.” I then joked something about just wanting to create more work for myself and that I’d have it cleaned up shortly. Eight hours later and knuckles practically raw to the bone from scrubbing – I finished cleaning the paint off the roof.
So I guess my whole point of telling you a little about my sales experience, how I started, and discovering that I have a passion for influencing positive outcomes and decisions is that I want to stick with sales and keep to what I’m good at. The product now though that I’ve finally realized I want to sell and that I believe is necessary and vital for everyone is “The Dream.” I mentioned it earlier in one of my posts, but I want to sell the dream – the one we all joke about and say to each other when asked how everything’s going… “Ah you know, just livin’ the dream!” I have some past colleagues that would always say to me (Mr. Callaghan especially), “you sell the dream man… you always sell the dream. People love it.” Of course he was talking about the products and services we sold, but he had a deeper sense of how I would go about it – I didn’t even realize what I did or really what he was talking about – I just believed in what I was doing so I was confident and enthusiastic. That’s all it took and that would do the selling for me. Belief – it’s all you need and when you have belief in something it’s radiant and contagious!
Now his words truly hit home to me. Since we got back from our journey overseas I’ve been struggling with what I want to do, where I’ll be working, for what company, and if I should do this or do that when all of a sudden it dawned on me one morning at the crack of dawn (HA!). Literally, I was sitting on the couch writing and staring out at the ocean watching the sunrise from my in-laws beach condo. The dream – I want to sell the dream! Everything that goes along with it – the courage and means to truly push pause, take a right when everyone else is still going straight, and do as we wish while having the financial and mental freedom to do so. I will use all the passion and ability I have for sales to sell the actual dream we all joke about. My wife and I actually made it happen and chose to do so. I’ve lived some of it now and will continue to plan for dream years. I now know it can happen. My goal and what I hope to do is truly inspire and influence as many of you as possible to actually take the step and make the choice to live the dream. Push pause on life and see what it’s all about. The benefits are numerous and it’s an awesome way to start fresh in life upon your return. Who knows where it may lead.
2 steeps to heaven
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