SMMA Journey; Getting Past The Anxiety Dan, September 26, 2023 Okay, I’ll make this one a bit more serious for all the goblins who got pressed about my other one even tho it’s only intended to help people but fuck it, we ball. Phone anxiety is honestly a real thing, I’ve experienced it so much. I don’t really anymore because of some shifts I’ve made in my mind and things I’ve understood about it but 95% of people will experience it for at least their first… 500 calls I’d say. It just comes with the nature of sales, when you see someone who has “Director” in their title you get a bit anxious or scared to even to talk to, or hell, even ask for them. I will try and help how to get over it here by explaining some things I’ve done myself to help me get over it. Seeing Past Their Titles I’d say the first and most important step in getting over phone anxiety is realise the fact that the people who you are so scared to talk to are just normal people. They have a bit of money (some of them are broke but in general they are fairly well off) and tell people who don’t have that much money what to do… that’s basically it. They worked hard, they got where they are and now they simply tell others how to do their job, they are still the same person however. Same person that they were when they first started working their regular ass job and when they started to build up their business. And they know it. Lemme tell you a story. I used to work in a pub, I had people come in all the time driving RSQ 8s, M5s, C63 AMGs, etc.. fancy and expensive cars. Directors of companies. Construction, renewable energy, trades, offices. All of these guys who seem so “intimidating to talk to” over the phone were hanging out in the same place as the kids who drive Corsa’s and Fiesta’s having chats with them over a pint of beer. When I was serving them I wasn’t thinking “omg you’re so important I am so scared to talk to you cuz you drive a V8”. I was thinking “here’s you beer mate, your… 9th pint in 2h.”. I remember I saw this one guy come in, he was driving a Rolls Royce Phantom with the number plate composed of 1 character. I won’t say what it was but it was crazy. He paid with a black Amex card. He came in, sat down in the front of the pub without requesting anything fancy with his wife and had a very normal dinner and had 2 bottles of very normal wine. He was then driven home by his own personal driver but he has a RR what do you expect. This just goes to show how all of your fears of sales directors and CEO’s are just in your head. They aren’t real. You’re holding them on a pedestal when they don’t hold themselves on one. They only are so important because us, other people, are making them seem so fucking important. So to go back to my first sentence. To get over phone anxiety, understand you are speaking to a normal human being. Reason Why You Are Anxious There’s a very good chance that the next few paragraphs I’ll write will be completely useless because I’ve already mentioned everything in a nutshell. So if you don’t care you can leave now. However, if you do care, let’s keep going- the reason why you get anxious before your calls is because you think they will judge you, you are scared of being rejected; you are simply scared of the unknown. Let’s be realistic- the reason why people are anxious is because they don’t know what will happen. There’s a few ways to get over this. The extremely boring answer is simply expect it. Expect every call to go bad and then you’ll never unexpectedly be faced with people who are rejecting you and hitting your ego. But that’s stupid because then you’ll go into every call with a loser mindset. Which will get you nowhere, like I mentioned in my other blog; it’s very important to be confident, to be stoic and to not let anything defeat or bother you. So that step goes out the window. Now let’s see how you ACTUALLY overcome it. Overcoming That Annoying-Ass Anxiety First thing I did to get over my phone anxiety is: I started to go to the gym in the mornings. I’ve worked out before I was cold calling, it helped. While I was at the gym resting between sets, during those 2-3 minutes where you hype yourself up for your top sets and everything goes through your mind you kind of make yourself understand how you are more than you think you are and you have a purpose in life. How nothing will stop you. You kind of become slightly delusional (which isn’t a bad thing!). I used to go gym, have a hard session where I’d push myself and feel like a god and took that attitude home with me to my calls. I found that calling before gym didn’t really work because that would mean I’m doing it after waking up. I don’t know about other people but when I wake up I feel like a truck hit me; I cannot function and I cannot seem to do anything that I say I’d do the night before. The second thing that I did is I stuck with a script. I had this habit where every call I used to look away and walk around and do anything but stay sat down and look at my screen to read my script out. When you have a plan and a script, everything will be a lot more expected. This is because you cannot fuck up, just read the screen with a bit of emotion and you’ll be just fine. However this requires some practice because if you say it like you are reading it then no one will listen to shit you say because… it sounds scripted. I’d suggest at first do bullet points and once you get good at that write out the whole script with the lines that get you the most success. The third thing I did was change my name. I used to say I’m Oskar in all of my calls. If they hang up or if they say I’m a dickhead or a rat or a pest and pissing them off they insulted Oskar… I don’t know who Oskar is but he just got called a pest who won’t stop calling Jordan from ABComapany Ltd. This probably won’t help a lot of people but it was one of the tactics I used, I felt like it was less personal that way. So yeah, one interesting thing I tried during my phone calls was changing my name. I used to introduce myself as “Oskar” in all of my calls. Sounds odd, but it had its reasons, and it turned out to be quite an experience. Try it out. Last thing I did was take control. I used to take control of the conversation, always. I’d call the gatekeeper and say “Pop me to Jordan. Thanks.”, they’d ask why and I’d interrupt them before they even finish saying “I just need to speak to him, it’s personal. I’d appreciate, if he’s free, to speak to him directly. Thank you.”. 70% of times it worked, other 30% it would just make them ask again what it’s regarding, in which case I’d just say “A question that I have for them.” again. Once you get to the director I’d start off by saying again “Hey is that Jordan?” to try and take control again. He is now answering me, not the other way round. Then I’d tell him to hang up if he didn’t care about the offer I’d have for him. Here’s the logic in that: If he hangs up he’s my bitch. He just listened to a random guy on the phone telling him what to do. What business owner is that lol. I don’t wanna work with someone who’s going to listen to some random guy. If he doesn’t hang up he gets pitched an irresistible offer. Both circumstances are within my power. Now the offer is genuinely really good. I have an amazing offer but some business genuinely don’t need it- you can’t feed someone who isn’t hungry. So just because they aren’t interested AFTER your offer doesn’t mean it’s bad. But this is very difficult to asses or talk about because sometimes it is just because your offer is bad other times it’s because of them. But this whole thing kind of fits in the “have a good offer” sub-category. I guess I should say that as the first sentence but that would mean I need to change the paragraph completely so I’ll leave it down here- HAVE A GOOD OFFER. If you don’t think you can help them then have an offer you can genuinely deliver on. For example I know for a fact I can get them at least $500,000 extra within a year. Some Things To Help With Anxiety If however you genuinely struggle with anxiety and it isn’t just “phone fright”(that would’ve been a better name I feel like) here’s some genuine things you could do to help, although I don’t believe anxiety can affect everyone, for example I don’t think I will ever be able to be diagnosed with anxiety, I understand some people might have a different wiring in their brain. So here’s some books I’ve read: “The Introvert’s Edge: How the Quiet and Shy Can Outsell Anyone” by Matthew Pollard“The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need” by Anthony Iannarino“The Wolf of Wall Street” by Jordan Belfort Here’s some lifestyle changes: Eat less fats Exercise more Find a hobby you are good at Find yourself a purpose Socialise with people even if you don’t think it would help Hug your parents (seriously) Have occasional cold showers Anyway… This one is a tiny bit more serious, hopefully I don’t get called quite as many names as before but hey… even if I do, it’s Dan that gets the insults not me… Don’t forget to buy my course: https://nocoursecuztheysuck.blog SMMA Journey