Happy Sunday Reader!

Reporting in from the middle of the Nor'easter hitting the Boston coast-line, while visiting family.

The winds and rain are pretty intense slapping against the windows, but truthfully, I stayed in my jammies, curled up with a coffee, and wrote in my journal for over an hour this morning, which was precisely what I needed.

As I'm prepping for the week ahead, I've been thinking about why we do or don't feel safe to make sales in our businesses.

The last 3 episodes of my podcast focused on sales and that's brought up some great conversations.

I realized that one of the biggest mistakes I have personally made around sales, was focusing on the wrong problem.

It is VERY easy to do. 😳

If the trickle of clients and sales slowed down, suddenly I'd start chasing a new strategy, new platforms or "might-go-viral" content.

If you can relate to that, then here's a quick test, that has helped me recalibrate before I start rebuilding things:

1) If you think you need more leads:

Open your inbox, DMs and contacts. Can you identify 5–10 people who have already expressed interest in your work that you could follow up with?

2) If you think your content “isn’t working”:

Scan your last month of posts. How many times did you actually talk about your offer and give people a direct invitation to take the next step?

3) If you think you need a new funnel, app or tech platform:

Look at the offer itself first. Is it clear what you're selling, who it's for and why someone would want it?

A great offer can sell from a Google Doc. No website or fancy funnel is needed.

It's so easy to get distracted by "quick fix" solutions, and forget to just ask people if they want what we have.

That leads me to another important question:

What would happen if we stopped treating sales like an emergency and started treating it like a regular weekly business practice?

This the core idea behind something new I've been building called the Sales Studio.

🎉 It officially gets underway next week.

This is a place for solopreneurs to actually practice weekly sales tasks like generating leads, following up, talking about your offers, having sales conversations and paying attention to what's working.

Instead of staying stuck in the dozens of potential marketing tasks that, while very important, can distract you - this will be a place for doing the work that creates sales.

I'll tell you more about it later this week, including how you can join me.

For today, I invite you to get back to basics.

This week, don't give yourself a giant list of new things to do.

Instead, figure out which part of your sales system actually needs your attention and start there.

And if you're thinking... "I don't really have a sales system", or you'd like another set of eyes on what you've been doing, I'm still opening a few 20-minute Sales System chats.

I offered these to the folks who came to the masterclass last week and there have already been breakthroughs and indeed, one reported new sale!

Sometimes a new perspective is all you need.

​[BOOK A 20-MIN SALES SYSTEM CHAT →]​

Results come from getting into action and I'm here to support that,

Deborah

P.S. If you're excited about the Sales Studio concept, me too! 😂 Stay tuned. I'm going to drop the link this week.