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One of my biggest entrepreneurial role models was someone straight out of the Dale Carnegie era, my husband’s grandfather.

He was a salesman right to the day he died and he LOVED it.

He loved selling absolutely anything and even taught selling to budding entrepreneurs.

One of his first jobs in Canada back in the 1950s was a janitor for an office building.  After one of his shifts, his employer caught him as he was leaving and pulled him aside to say what an impeccable job he was doing.  “Even the ash trays are spotless!” he said.

Then, with very little English still, he talked himself into a reliable factory job for a large automotive company.  Riding on the bus next to all the other men with their lunch boxes in hand he would say a little prayer of gratitude for the stable income as he and his family got their feet planted in this new country. And then he would say “but this is not for me for long.”

And it wasn’t.

Years later, in his salesman prime, he would tell the story that whenever he made a pitch and was politely declined he would thank the business person for their time and then ask for one more favour.

Then he’d pull out his little note pad and pen and ask who this person thought would need what he was selling.

And then he’d stand there in silence, pen poised.

Now THERE is some lead generation.

Sometimes we get so caught up in having the perfect niche or elevator pitch that we lose track of what our business really is.

Our essence.

I wanted to be a marriage counsellor when I was 12 years old.  That turned into clinical psychologist who did alternative therapies.  That turned into Naturopathic Doctor who had a strong mind-body focus and now I blend neuroscience and energy psychology and naturopathy.

It was always me.

My husband’s grandfather was always ballsy and always did a top-of-the-line job, whether as a janitor, a car assembler or an entrepreneurial salesman.

What is the essence that you have grown and nourished and shared as you’ve journeyed to where you are now?

Maybe it’s not just about the number of dollars on the screen or finding the perfect Facebook ad strategy.  Maybe it’s not just about all the things we should do, but about all the things we can’t help but do.

Thank you for doing your business as only YOU can.