Old Work Habits Die Hard
simplesahm | March 30, 2007 Prior to becoming a direct sales representative, I was an investigator for our county’s child protection agency where I spent my days interviewing people non-stop. “What happened to your child?” “What are your housing plans?” “How is your marriage?” When I wasn’t being nosey, I was busy making often feeble attempts to fix people.
Needless to say, it was quite refreshing to leave my social services job and work with people that didn’t have the same issues as my “customers” from my previous job. I was ready for a change of pace.
Within the first few months of my business, I was worn out and struggling but couldn’t figure out why. I was signing up new consultants, and I was swamped with calls from my existing team members. However, I wasn’t making any money. My phone rang almost non-stop and I was drained. Why was everyone so “needy”?
One evening, I sat down with my husband and told him how taxing my new business had become and he replied, “well..it’s simple - just quit chit-chatting with everyone”. How dare he suggest that my business communication was nothing more than idle “chit-chat”. Needless to say, I shrugged off his advice, stomped off and made a few more calls.
“So, how are your kids?” I asked one of my business team members. She proceeded to tell me about her son’s tonsillitis, her daughter’s upcoming pre-school pageant along with a detailed account of her new dog’s potty training problem. I responded by telling her about my new jeans, my son’s first tooth and the argument I had just had with my husband.
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