Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my evolution as a creative and entrepreneur.
I feel like every entrepreneur says they’ve always “been an entrepreneur at heart,” but I mean it when I say it. My hustle roots run deep.
Growing up, my parents were the epitome of hustlers. They were in timeshare sales in an era when timeshares were everything - before our world was graced with platforms like Airbnb or VRBO. If you wanted to travel and not stay in a hotel, you got a timeshare.
I watched them GRIND as a kid, often spending many of my days and weekends at their resort, romping the offices and slyly stealing candy from any desk I could find.
I still vividly remember their “sales floor.” It was a room with green carpets.
(In hindsight, was that some kind of subconscious money move? 🤣 Aesthetically, the green was terrible. But whatever magic money juju it emulated… it worked.)
Picture a large, quiet room full of individual round tables each with 3 chairs. Perfectly suited for the sales rep and the party of two who were about to invest in a timeshare.
As you can imagine, kids weren’t allowed on the sales floor. If you were a guest about to invest in a timeshare, they had a place to drop off your kids for an hour or so while you talked it out on those green carpets.
But ever so often, I’d sneak past the big windows and mosey my way onto the sales floor to watch the salespeople work their magic.
I witnessed my parents here regularly razzling & dazzling their clients and the pure rush of excitement when they would close anotha one (DJ Khaled voice).
My parents also often hosted dinner parties. And no, these weren’t your typical home dinner parties with friends. These were sales & nurturing events circa 2000 before the age of social media and today’s common marketing strategies.
This was old-school sales.
My parents would contact their list of leads, put out flyers, and get anywhere from 15-30 people to show up for a free dinner at a restaurant (it was always a good night when the dinner party was at Bennigan’s). In exchange for a free meal, my parents would pitch the resort and often end the night with a number of timeshare sales.
I’d watch it all happen, and honestly, I loved every second of it. I would sit in my corner, drink rootbeer, play my Nintendo, and once again, observe my parents as they morphed into the most confident salespeople to ever exist.
They just oozed good energy. My dad in some trousers and a slick button-up – don’t forget the Mont Blanc pen (it feels rich in your hand when you’re signing the dotted line, duh. If my clients were signing contracts in real life instead of Dubsado, you bet I’d be spending a pretty penny on a fancy AF pen for no good reason. 😂)
My mom was always in a power fit. She was attractive, and tall, walked with her shoulders back, and could rock a pinstripe suit better than any man in that office could.
My parents are natural salespeople. Scratch that, they’re just phenomenally good people people. Their aura in most social settings is like a magnet — drawing people into whatever story they’re telling.
It’s no wonder I’m an extreme extrovert who can make a friend anytime, anywhere.
My parents have always had a way of making you feel like they’re invested in you and care deeply about your story.
So back to the dinner parties… Have you ever seen a REALLY good salesperson work the room? I’m not just talking about someone at a retail store or your local tire shop. I’m talking about the kind of sales where thousands and thousands of dollars are on the line.
Let me tell you; it’s a beautiful thing.
Watching a GOOD salesperson work is like watching magic unfold.
Naturally, I pocketed this magic as a kid, and I realized much later in my adult life that I had been using this “sales magic” my whole life.
I was using it in the classroom to persuade my teachers and classmates. Like the time I organized an entire “Toms: a day without shoes” at my school and I convinced most of my 8th-grade class to walk around school without shoes for the whole day to bring awareness to kids around the world who didn’t have any 😂 (True story. Completely gross in hindsight? Yes. Persuading though? Also yes.)
I was using this sales magic when I was in elementary school, deliberately convincing my friends to let me clean their room in exchange for something of theirs. I was a bartering queen by age 10.
I was using this sales magic when I started charging $5 for a Myspace page layout design in middle school, complete with custom HTML and graphics I sourced on the internet. I would even take my friends’ profile pictures on my point-and-shoot camera.
But it wasn’t just the ‘entrepreneurial’ things I was using this sales magic in.
I was using it in most social settings, in my relationships, and even at school in my short stint as student council president.
The point is; there was, and always is, something to sell.
On a daily basis, we are selling. We’re selling ideas, personalities, beliefs, products, goods, services, and future dreams.
We go about our daily business getting the world to ‘buy-in’ to whatever it is we find important.
And alllll of those years, watching my parents waltz their way onto the sales floor with the green carpet, I realized selling isn’t actually that complicated. There’s a formula.
Maybe selling for you has always come naturally, like it does for me, or maybe you’ve always felt the ick from selling, for fear of being misperceived.
The truth is, being a good salesperson (aka being magnetic) comes down to two things.
You have to be confident as fuck in what you’re saying and what you’re selling.
And you need to know how to read people.
Have you ever been around a confident person? (Note how I used the word confident, not conceited - there’s a huge difference.)
A confident person draws attention. People want to know what they’re so confident about and why. And most confident people bring others up along with them.
This is that magical, magnetic energy we all desire. Confidence breeds confidence. The more we’re around it, the more we learn how to imitate it. And in all honesty, the more we believe someone when they’re confident.
A great salesperson will ooze confidence from their body language to their word selection to how they approach conversations and relationships. It’s a science that anyone can learn.
Secondly, what confidence can’t exist without in order to go from just ok at sales to something dynamic, tangible, and magical is learning how to read the room.
Regardless if you’re selling potted plants or diamond rings or Christmas lights or timeshares, a great salesperson will know 1) who they’re speaking to 2) what their problems are and 3) approach every conversation with THEM and the solution at the forefront of the story, not the other way around.
‘Reading the room’ or really just ‘reading people’ isn’t some insane art. Again, this is something you can learn.
Are others more inclined? Sure. But can you pick up these same people-reading skills to become so good at making someone say YES because you’ve quite literally tantalized them with exactly what they know they need or want? Also yes.
I’ve used these skills while I served drinks at a bar and made my customers feel like the most important person in the world to selling designer gowns at Nordstrom that made my customers feel like they couldn’t live without it to making over half a million in revenue in my business as a Dubsado expert.
It all comes down to knowing exactly what I’m selling, knowing who I’m selling it to, and being confident in it from start to finish.
When you start to approach every potential “sale” with this formula in mind, you’ll find it easier than ever to be a natural at sales. And when you nail this, people will be lining up to buy absolutely anything from you.
Whether you’re a business owner or just a mom trying to convince her PTO of this year’s gala theme, sales is a critical life skill to master.
And the sooner you learn to master it, the sooner you’ll realize just how powerful the art of confidence + people reading really is.
Now time to go out and make some sales 🤑
Oh and P.S. I’m hosting a free masterclass next week where I will be (hint-hint) selling my value + and offering some sweet resources, discounts, and products while we’re there. Want to see this magic in action? Click here to reserve your free seat.
Show yourself some love today, friend.
You’ve earned it.
As always,
Taylor Torres