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Imagine this: I'm sitting at my desk on a Sunday afternoon in Houston, Texas, in the back of my training studio where my office was. It was a beautiful day.
There were blue skies,, with a few clouds. It was hot and humid, which it always is in Houston.I'm sitting in my back office, which is where all the electrical equipment is, and it's kind of buzzing in the back, and it's even hotter in there because the A/C wasn't quite pumping in quite hard enough.
It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm looking at my computer, and tears start streaming down my face. The reason is because I was looking at my bank account, and I was realizing that rent and payroll were due on Friday and I was $10,000 short. I just remembered that old saying, “the first day that you can't make payroll, that it's the first day that you're out of business.”
I was about six months into owning my business and I was at my wit's end because my bank account was drained, I was maxed out on my lines of credit and maxed out on my credit cards, and I didn't have any pending sales that week which would potentially take me out of this. I realized at that moment that I had to make the hardest phone call of my life. Two things made that very, very difficult.
The first is I had to admit that I needed help.
As an entrepreneur, I'm sure you can relate, we're always told that we can do it on our own. That we just plug through and we can just go, go, go and things would get better, and we don't need help. We don't need anybody else. We're on an island all by ourselves. I've got to tell you, that's absolutely complete BS. We do need help, and we do need to get other people involved in our business who can help us out along the way.
The second reason that that phone call was very difficult for me to make was because it was to my father.
At 40 years old I had to ask him for money. I don't know if you've ever had that experience of asking your father for money or your family for money, but it's a very, very humbling experience. At least it was for me.
So I said, "Dad, I have a problem." He could hear it in my voice. He could hear that I was crying. I said, "I need to borrow $10,000 or I won't be able to make payroll or rent on Friday." He was like, "Well, son, I can certainly loan you the money," and the emphasis there is on loan, because it came with a 12% interest rate and I had to put my house up for collateral. I was like, "Dad, what's this all about? Why the interest rate? Why the house for collateral? Why the eight-page contract that I have to sign?" He said, "Well, son, I need to teach you a lesson."I was like,
"Dad. I'm 40 years old. I don't need any more life lessons. I need $10,000 or I'm going to be out of business."
As it always turn out dads are right. I did absolutely need that life lesson, and that life lesson was that it's okay to ask for help. That sometimes we need the help of other people.And that started me off on a journey of getting more help, and that's when I discovered that selling was a system.
When I used my new sales system I sold better and sold more consistently.
Plus I was able to shift my mindset from thinking I was intruding in people's lives, but rather I had a solution to a problem and that it was okay to ask to money. I finally created a system of selling that got me to make some real money. I went from selling 10 sessions at a time for like $600 to selling 50 to 100 sessions at $2,500 to $5,000 a time.In that first year of business, I squeezed $100,000 in gross revenue from that business. However, In the second year of business, I did $500,000.
Let that sink in for a second. I went from $100,000 to $500,000, and it was all because I learned how to sell.
And as a natural introvert ... Believe it or not, I am an introvert ... sales always seemed a little sleazy to me, but once I learned that it was a process and that I was solving somebody's problem and I used stories to sell, it became so much easier.That's why I'm so passionate about helping other people with selling and telling their stories in a unique and impactful way that will get them to grow their business and to make more money and, ultimately, to be able to ask for help as well. I even invested in coaches. I've invested close to $100,000 or more in coaching and help as an entrepreneur, and I can tell you what, it has paid off dividends again and again and again.So if you're in a similar situation, or maybe you're not but things could be better, and if you haven't asked for help lately, ask for help.
Feel free to reach out to me. I would love to speak with you.
I'd love to give you a free book on how to tell your story in an impactful way so that you too can grow your business with the power of story. Download here: www.TomJackobs.com/storybook
Let me know your thoughts.