When you look at notary businesses across the country, you see a wide range of results being produced. Some people say it’s the market or over-saturation but today I want to challenge your thought process a bit differently. What if the major difference between successful businesses and struggling notary businesses is confidence. Could confidence be the missing ingredient for struggling businesses to become profitable and grow consistently? For most companies, their sales team will usually have a small core of high achievers that earn the bulk of commission and many sales representatives who have a drastically lower output each year.
Why is that?
Aside from proper training, one of the number one factors that determine this is confidence. Self-confidence and confidence in your product/service are crucial for success in any business. Self-confidence is how you see yourself. Not how you see yourself dressed in the mirror but how you truly see yourself. Self-confidence is your answer to questions like:
Do I think people see me as smart? Do I see myself as smart?
Am I beautiful or handsome?
Can I speak eloquently enough to make a sale?
Do people take me seriously?
Am I destined for greatness?
Do I deserve great things to happen to me?
How do you answer those questions? Not just with your words but with your actions. When you walk in a networking event, are intimidated by others because you feel less than, so you cower away, or do you look at it as an opportunity to learn from others and embrace the experience? When are you meeting potential clients are you wrapping your self-worth into whatever answer they give you after your pitch? Many people do like sales because when people reject their pitch, the salesperson feels like they have been personally rejected. When you build your self-confidence, you can separate the two.
How can anyone build confidence?
The first step is to know who you are and more importantly who you are not! Define yourself and with a fresh set of eyes, not with the eyes of society but with who you say you are. In the beginning, you still may not feel as confident, but your confidence was not broken overnight. Look at very small children, their confidence is through the roof, and they feel as if they can do anything, and they do not care who is watching. Over time from parental correction and society’s guiding hands, they are taught limitations and what to be afraid of, and in turn, decreased self-confidence begins to form. Redefine the possibilities you set for yourself.
The second step is to add to your skillset. Join Toastmasters and improve your public speaking skills, read books on confidence and self-image building, surround yourself with other powerful and self-confident people.
The third step is to get out there and use your confidence. The more you do something the better at you will become. When I first started speaking as a notary trainer, it would be in front of about 20 people in a small classroom and I was terrified, but I did it anyway. Now I feel more than comfortable speaking in front of a room of a thousand about notary work because I did it repeatedly and that built my confidence in it. Put yourself out there and do it afraid and soon that fear WILL turn into confidence!