When I started in the world of entrepreneurship, I paid my investment and said to myself “now I am going to make some money!”

Months went by. I attended every meeting, actively participated in every teleconference, bought leads and called them diligently and even traveled to Orlando for our convention.

I was with that company for about two years before the company changed names and leadership and I left. I never made a sale, I never made a dime. And I had invested so much money, that I actually had to consolidate my credit.

One of the biggest lessons, I learned from that experience, was that you have to be a product of the product.

Sure, we all get into business because we would like to earn a little more than our usual paycheck, but if all you are thinking about is the money, chances are…you are not going to make any.

You need to be able to explain why your product is useful. Not in a sleazy salesman kind of way, but honestly. And the only way you can do that is to use the product yourself.

Personally, I don’t believe in representing anything I do not believe it myself. For one thing, I am a terrible sales person. I need to really know what I am talking about and really believe in it and then I don’t need to do any convincing at all. I am just naturally excited about it.

I believed in the product my company was selling, but I had never ‘experienced’ it.

So when I told people about it. I would try to rush over the details and get to the money part as quickly as possible. But I felt weird about the money too, because I was not totally convinced it was worth it since I had not experienced it. In short, I sounded dishonest.

Many of us shy away from business because we are afraid to “sell”….but it’s not that daunting when all you are really doing is telling people about a great product YOU use, YOU trust and YOU believe in. You do that every day anyway.

“hey, did you see that last episode of Scandal?” – you just ‘sold’ a TV show

“Oh I just love the banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery” – you just ‘sold’ the bakery AND the banana pudding…which I DO love by the way 🙂

So, if you are already in the business, make sure you know what it is you are representing. Take a look around your websites and Product Pages, USE the product, do you love it? You need to be your best customer.

So this is my rule number one. No matter what business you are in,

You need to be a product of the product!!