“I’m sorry. I’m so bad at selling things,” I muttered, slightly flushed with shame.
Wendy paused. “How about we reframe that, Emily,” she said. “What if we said you’re not totally sure how to sell your products…yet?”
I smiled as I handed her a deck of my Truer Words cards, still feeling twinges of oh-my-God-I-own-a-business-and-made-a-thing-but-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing as I watched her rummage around for cash.
Wendy had wanted to pay me for my cards with “Cash App.” That is capitalized and in quotes because I literally have no idea what it is, even after I tried to quickly look it up on the iTunes store in order to install it on my phone.
Turns out it’s some kind of magic thing that lets people give you money, but my hopes of installing it and thus appearing to sorta know what I was doing were dashed when I remembered I can’t ever remember my iTunes password. Like ever. Thanks dyslexia.
When I don’t understand something I shut down. I feel dumb. I get a tight feeling in my chest and a sinking feeling in my stomach, the exact same sensation I felt when I had tests on long division in 6th grade.
Reframe: I’ve spent my entire life figuring out how to do the thing in my own way, at my own speed. My brain is a good brain.
The funny thing is that so often when we grow up we expect to somehow leave behind our child selves. We forget that just because someone is an adult doesn’t mean they can read. Or spell. Or do math. Or know what Cash App is and how it works.
Reframe: everyone can learn if they are taught. You can even teach yourself if you’ve learned how you learn and can set aside your anxiety and fear.
I decided this weekend, after meeting Wendy at her rad Women in Business seminar at Mercycorps Northwest, that I was going to start this week by setting aside my anxiety and fear surrounding selling the things I’ve made.
I woke up this morning and figured out how to make a store on my website. I have some things for sale in there. I’m proud of these offerings and myself.
So what if I never thought my super dyslexic self would be capable of making a printed resource? How is it serving me to be convinced that I don’t belong or aren’t good enough to have my own store?
Reframe: I created Truer Words Volumes 1 & 2 because they help me and will help you. They are beautiful. They are true. They are some pieces of my heart on really nice paper that I paid extra for.
Thanks for the invitation to reframe, Wendy. I needed it.