I always showed up at the dojo early because my son had karate practice before judo.

I’d get him situated in class, then walk down the hall to the auditorium.

I lugged out the giant grey mats that towered over me. I couldn’t even wrap my hands around them.

I’d rush to lay all 5 of them down and secure everything in place with 15 smaller mat pads before rushing into the changeroom to put on my gi.

Judo Mats

In the previous weeks, I told Sensei that I couldn’t do cartwheels because I had carpal tunnel and they bothered my wrists.

(true but it was mostly just an excuse)

Alone in the room, I would work up the nerve to try doing a cartwheel.

I did them as a kid, so this should be second nature but I just couldn’t bring myself to hurl my body in the air.

Even alone, I was worried I would look stupid.

5 seconds of courage – that’s all I needed to send myself flying down onto the mat.

The first one was a little rusty.

The second one was a little better.

By the 5th and 6th one, I felt like a giddy little kid again.

As everyone piled into the room for that nights class, Sensei sent us down the mats doing cartwheels.

One! Two! Three halfway decent cartwheels down the mat.

I was fucking elated!

I DID IT and was beaming from ear to ear.

I rounded the end of the mat, looked over at Sensei and the others …

and no one had even noticed.

At first I was pissed because it took everything I had to make that happen.

But they didn’t know that.

No one noticed how good or bad I was because they were all more focused on their own outcome.

They didn’t have time to worry about me.

“Please let this work.”

That’s the super secret, silent prayer that I say to myself whenever I send out another email, write a blog post or create a new offer.

I’ve been doing this for a very long time, successfully I might add! And yet, I still have this incredibly horrible fear of sales.

Or do I?

I wasn’t afraid of doing a shitty cartwheel in judo. I was afraid of looking stupid in front of other people.

I’m not afraid of selling … it’s actually much deeper than that.

As an entrepreneur, we hate on sales like it’s a 4-letter word.

I once worked with Leslie from Crunchy Betty. Her site was insanely hot.

She had more hits in a day than I saw in a month of Sundays. Every post and email was a home-fucking-run.

And she wouldn’t monetize her site.

It’s more common than you might think showing up like …

… Not knowing how to sell without being “salesy”.

… Worrying what people might think.

… Afraid of being annoying.

… Imposter syndrome.

… Afraid of not being good enough.

You’re not afraid of sales. You’re afraid of rejection.

The saying “fake it til you make it” always felt so gross to me and I don’t recommend that way of thinking if you think you’re still afraid of selling.

I watched Rookie Blue last week and Andy used the phrase “as if”.

No, not the slang that we GenX’ers used … but as a better way than “faking it”.

Faking it til you make it means saying stupid things in your copy like “OMG I’ve already almost sold out of these” when you’ve only sold one. To your sister. Who only bought out of pity.

Acting “as if” is changing the way you think about things.

See the outcome you want to achieve.

Write your copy “as if” you had a hundred people knocking on your door.

Allow yourself to feel “as if” you’ve already made shit happen.

Leading with authenticity is the best way forward (in business or in life) and there’s absolutely no way you can fake authenticity.

Think about it.

We’ve spent years telling everyone that you can’t believe everything you see/hear/read/watch on the internet … and now you’re going to what … go out and be fake hoping they won’t see through it?

GURL … we’ve been waiting for that moment our whole lives.

When all else fails, remember that when you are rejected* it’s because you’ve put yourself out there.

You’ve taken a risk.

Success in business is the result of taking enough risks and being ok falling on your ass and hearing a couple of no’s along the way.

* Yes, I said WHEN and not IF you are rejected because the only time you’ll never get rejected is when you aren’t making an offer and that’s not what Business Bombshells do at all.