Out of the Comfort Zone

Cup of Joe Volume 2

*** Bzzzz....Google Notification: Invitation Review/Training .....Bzzzz ***

As I prepped my backpack and belongings for the next day of work, my phone suddenly chimed with a notification. What could this be about? As I brought the phone into focus and glanced upon the screen, I was relieved. It was a calendar invite from the head of sales stating that he wanted to go through the new sales play. However, there was sentence that was peculiar at the end of the meeting notes.

“….. you need to practice this Patrick Henry speech and be ready to deliver a dramatic reading... :)”

Huh, a dramatic reading? Maybe this was placed here to lighten the mood. I gave a slight chuckle because every day surprises me with new experiences. Even though, I did not think much of it, I had an inkling that it would be something our team actually did, so I gave the speech a few practice runs in my head before I slept.

As the the overcast morning had passed the next day and the warm sun rolled in over the building, I was ecstatic because it was lunch time! Some of us on the GTM team walked to the common room to get some food and the Head of Sales quickly brushed passed and told the SDRs to make sure that the reading was practiced cause we were going to recite it.

A slight rush of adrenaline hit me. Uh oh, I am in trouble. Even though my job is to talk to people all day, there has always been a small piece of apprehension that I could not shake off. It might have stemmed from my younger self, whenever I did not want to do something like public speaking, that event would always manifest itself and somehow I would be in front and center of it with my heart pumping. My mind began to run as fast as I could blink.

What happens if I look stupid? How should I accentuate this part? What should my actions be while doing this? What happens if I do not schedule a meeting? What happens if I get hung up on? Why am I worrying about meetings when I have to do a reading?

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Alright, no time for doubts, practice starts in 5 minutes.

[Fast forward toward the end of our playbook practice, I hear the question]

“Alright, who would like to go first in the dramatic exercise?”

Well, here we go, no turning back. My hand shot up like a rocket. I tend to be that type of person who likes to get things over with instead of sitting and worrying. I began to recite the words of Patrick Henry, stumbling over the colloquial phrases that I was not accustomed to saying. As I made it to some key points, I made some volume fluctuations to give a slight dramatic effect.

When I completed the last phrase, I looked at my teammates and they applauded. I gave a sigh of relief. That was not too bad.The one thing that surprised me was that each team member went one by one and performed their own renditions of the speech. I would have to say that everyone did a phenomenal job.

It showed me that in this job of sales, you cannot take yourself too seriously. 1! 2! 3! Smile!

Some other bits of learnings from this little exercise:

1. Do not shy away from things that make you uncomfortable.
2. Deepen you skillset and lean into different tactics of learning.
3. Even if your best is not good enough, always try and learn from your mistakes.
4. Understand the purpose behind your scripts in order to have conviction behind the words that are said.

On a side note because I tend to digress a bit during my writing sprints is that I can actually apply the learnings from this small exercise to all facets of my life.

• In my fitness goals, I should try to be more comfortable with the uncomfortable. An example of this is booking a different workout on things like ClassPass every week even though it might be difficult and challenging.
• In my real estate goals, I could use a bit more motivation in my willingness to learn new topics and go out of my way to put the lessons into practice. For example, getting clients for new potential listings by cold calling.
• In my personal goals, I could push myself to complete tasks that I have been holding myself back from accomplishing like producing a mix of music or writing extra blog posts without being fearful of the result.

I have learned from my past endeavors that all goals can be achieved, but there needs to be motivation and a plan to keep it moving towards the end. Focus on the little things to propel you forward and make them into good habits. As time moves on, you will eventually see that those small positive goals in the short run will add up to huge accomplishments in the long run.

Keep pushing yourself out of the comfort zone, I know when we have another dramatic reading, I am going to win an award for Best Actor.

Note from me, Johannsen:

1. Thank you again for tuning again to another Cup of Joe. It was fun writing another piece. Hopefully, the next ones I can get even more in depth and write better.