Sales is a mindset, sales is a powerful life skill
As a freelancer, I have to sell myself, even when I don’t feel ready
To me, one of the hardest parts of being a freelancer isn’t the work itself.
It’s selling yourself when you don’t feel legit yet.
When your confidence isn’t fully there.
When a small voice in your head keeps asking: “Why would they choose me?”
I’ve had moments where I knew I could help a company solve a problem, but still felt uncomfortable talking about what I do.
Not because I lacked skills, but because selling myself felt like pretending to be more confident than I actually was.
For a long time, I thought this discomfort meant I wasn’t “made for sales”.
This week, for my series, WITH THAT BEING SAID, I share with you what I learnt from the podcast hosted by Jay Shetty, On Purpose. He talked with Shelby Sapp, about sales being a life skill.
And it helped me realize something important:
I wasn’t bad at sales, I misunderstood what sales actually is.
Sales doesn’t start with talking. It starts with understanding.
One of the biggest shifts for me was this idea that sales is not about how well you pitch.
It’s about how well you listen. People don’t want to hear about your product, your resume, or your “flex”. They want to feel understood.
- What are they struggling with?
- What are they trying to achieve?
- What’s frustrating them right now?
Asking questions isn’t annoying, it’s respectful.
When you genuinely try to understand someone’s pain points and motivations, you naturally adjust how you speak to them. Not to manipulate, but to be relevant.
Belief is contagious, and people can feel it
Another thing that really stuck with me: People buy into your belief before they buy into your offer.
If you don’t believe in what you’re selling, people will feel it immediately. No framework can compensate for that.
But so the opposite is also true: when you genuinely believe in what you’re offering, your energy does the work for you.
Passion shows up in your eyes, your voice, your presence, and passion is contagious.
This was eye-opening for me, because it reframed confidence.
Confidence doesn’t come before action. Confidence comes from taking action.
Sales is everywhere, and it’s not always about money
Another big realization was this: Sales is not just about money.
We sell ideas. We sell attention. We sell time.
Every day:
- The coffee shop sells you a feeling.
- Content creators sell you a few minutes of your focus.
- A movie sells you an emotional experience.
Sales is simply a transaction of value. And sometimes, the value isn’t money, it’s time, trust, or energy.
At its core, sales is about making someone feel:
- Seen
- Important
- Excited
It’s about hyping people up, not proving how great you are.
People don’t care about your flex, they care about what your flex can do for them.
High performers don’t fear rejection, they reframe it
One of the strongest insights I took from this podcast was how top performers deal with rejection.
Not with confidence. Not with ego. But with mental discipline.
In sales, hearing “no” is inevitable. And yet, the best salespeople don’t internalize it. They’ve trained themselves to see a “no” for what it really is: valuable information.
Not a judgment. Not a personal failure. Not a reflection of their value. It is just data.
Reframing “no” changes everything
A “no” can mean a lot of things:
- The timing is wrong
- The problem isn’t painful enough
- The person isn’t the right fit
- The priorities are elsewhere
But rarely does it mean: “You’re not good enough.” High performers separate who they are from what happened.
Instead of asking: “What did I do wrong?”
They ask: “What did this tell me?”
That simple shift protects their mindset, and their confidence.
Not wasting time on the wrong “yes”
This part really stayed with me.
A reluctant “yes” can be worse than a clean and respectful “no”. When alignment isn’t there, you end up: over-explaining, over-discounting, over-proving yourself.
High performers would rather walk away than force a deal that doesn’t feel right. They trust that the right opportunities don’t require begging.
Why this matters outside of sales
This mindset isn’t just useful in sales.
It applies to:
- Freelancing
- Job searching
- Networking
- Content creation
- Even relationships
If you treat every “no” as a personal rejection, you burn out. If you treat it as information, you learn and move forward.
That’s the real superpower. Not avoiding rejection, but being mentally strong enough to use it.
Listen to this podcast episode to get a simple sales framework for your everyday life.
Contact me to talk about the power of the sales mindset.