Conquering FEAR That's Capping Your Income

Fear is one of the things that holds us back in roofing sales. It holds us back from earning as much as we can, serving as much as we can. And fear is what leads a lot of people to leaving the industry thinking it's not for them. Because let's face it, this whole world of roofing sales is by no means the easiest joyride of a career choice we can make. We are forced to face ourselves, our inner demons, and and our own fears in ways that we don't in nearly any other career path. If you're a cubicle worker, an accountant, or flipping burgers, what are you afraid of? Maybe making a mistake. That's it. You show up, you type on your little keyboard, you flip your burgers, and you go home. But in roofing sales, you carry everything from home with you. You have all of your past childhood baggage that made you who you are. You have all of your own demons that you're facing. And we get to bring all this to work. And guess what? It ain't easy. In fact, many of us, myself included, had a really challenging journey. Maybe you're in the middle of it right now, learning how to not only face those fears, but to conquer those fears. Now, for me, and I'm curious if the same might have happened for you. I was afraid of knocking doors. I was afraid of rejection. I was afraid of conflict. I was afraid of asking for the business because I didn't want to get rejected. I was afraid of coming across as pushy. So instead of leaning into objections, I would shift to nice guy mode and get the heck out of the house. By the way, I covered that recently in the 3x rule video that I recently published. Now, those elements of fear became my income ceiling because I knew that if I couldn't break through that, that fear would limit me. And fear is something that most all of us have encountered when it comes to sales. I go so far as to say all of us have. Not everyone will admit it. This is my belief. Now, fear is an interesting phenomenon that lives between our heads, meaning we make it all up. There was a gentleman that emailed me last year. He's a combat veteran. He served numerous tours and is one of the most. If my memory is right, I don't remember if it was Iraq or Afghanistan. I think it was Iraq, but he was stationed in, let's call it Iraq for the sake of this story. One of the most dangerous places in the war. He was in a tremendous amount of combat situations. And in the email he wrote to me, he said, and I'm paraphrasing here. He said, I never once skipped a beat in the thick of combat when I was deployed. But I just got back. I'm in roofing sales now, and when I pull up in a neighborhood in my truck, I am crippled with fear so much that I cannot even get out of my truck to go knock on a door. And there's been a few times now where I've driven to that neighborhood and actually gone home. Now, here you think like the true epitome of a hero in a a disciplined soldier who's fearless right in combat with his life on the line, doesn't skip a beat. Yet here he is in roofing sales in what I'll consider a safe environment, showing up to knock on someone's door to offer them service and he can't do it. Now, this is absolutely not a diss to this gentleman. This isn't a perfect example that we're all human and the fear that we create is in our head. That fear that we create is what holds us back. And in this video, I want to share with you a very simple daily practice that you can begin using right now and you can even share this with your team to help you conquer those fears one domino at a time so you can smash your income goal, give every customer an amazing experience and while doing so, be as confident as you can. Absolutely unshakeable and communicate with clarity with absolutely nothing holding you back or or pulling you down. By conquering these fears, you get to become the best version of yourself to serve in the highest capacity possible. And it feels amazing. And my hope is that this simple little daily practice can help you get there. Now, before we get started, I just want to say a quick welcome or welcome back. Adam Bensman here, the roof strategist and everything that I do on my YouTube channel, my podcast, in our training center, and on speaking events across the country is designed around one simple mission that is to help you and your team smash your income goal and give every customer an amazing experience. So if you like this video or any of the content you've seen us put out there, I invite you to join us inside our free training center for a whole lot more. You can get in using the link in the description or by texting the word free to 303-222-7133 and inside you're going to get access to my pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library. My roof claims crash course my 10 closing techniques for every situation My I recommend reading this and to be able to secure your free copy of my book that'll be coming out soon called the Roofing Sale Survival Guide. All that Awaits Inside. By the way, it's a great way to get a taste for our training center so you can see if you might be interested for you or your team. So click the link in the description or text free to 303-222-7133 now let's get back to this topic of fear. I got into the business as a very thin skinned person who is very afraid of conflict, was very afraid of upsetting people, who was very afraid of rejection. I just didn't do well with it. And the funny thing I got into door to door sales and the first sale I ever made was a cold call off a commercial sign. I shared that story in many other videos so I'll spare it today, but I remember vividly sitting in my truck covered in sweat. I just left the gym, saw for rent sign on the same strip center, picked up the phone and dialed and my hands were trembling. Here I am. I was more afraid to make a cold call without even having to face someone than I was to show up at the door. Which again is an example that it's all in my head. My fears were the biggest challenge for me to overcome. I was not cut out for this. Like born and bred, I had to learn those skills. And what I realized in my belief is that I had this talent hiding inside me, but I had to chisel away all of this garbage baggage that was keeping that part of me trapped. So if you look at this like the concept of a sculpture that the sales prowess that I had hiding inside there had not yet shown. And what was blocking that was different layers of fear in my own inner demons and baggage that I had to slowly chip away. Now if we think of this analogy of chipping away fear to reveal our true inner talent, to reveal our true confidence, and to reveal a true fearless salesperson, we have to chip away at the block. So I want you to hold this analogy in your mind and think of the two ways that people approach this challenge. Path number one is the path of avoidance. If it makes me afraid, I'm going to stay away from it. I'm going to drive into the neighborhood and leave. I'm not going to cold call. It freaks me out. I'm going to do everything I can to not knock doors. I'm just going to mail these letters out and hope someone calls me. This is avoidance and when we avoid things, just want to ask you directly does that chip away at the block? No. In fact, it almost even strengthens the block. Because when we avoid things that make us fearful, that tells our body, good job, kid. You're safer now. Which means you maintain the same level of fear. And in fact, for many people, it continues to amplify the fear. That which we avoid becomes even more fearful. So instead of conquering it, it just makes it worse. You're not going to chip away the block if you don't look at the block. Path number two is we hit this stuff head on. What's the first thing we need to do to conquer fear? One, we got to look at it. You got to look at that block number two, you got to pick up the tools, and you got to start tackling it. So how do we apply this analogy from a daily practice? Avoidance doesn't work. We have to look at it, pick up the tools, and intentionally tackle that fear to chisel away those parts of us that no longer serve us so we can reveal the confident, fearless salesperson within us. And in order to do that, we need to face those fears daily. Which is why I would like to invite you to participate in the daily Fear Challenge. Now, in doing so, your mission is to identify with a piece of paper, write them down, and if you're bold and brave, I encourage you to share that in the comment section below. This is the stuff that so many people don't talk about because in my opinion, there's too much ego involved in sales. What I love about sales is that it's just a really big game of personal development where we're challenged to learn how to communicate and be a better person, working with other people to solve problems. And we just get paid really well by getting better at doing that. So when I look at this challenge of chiseling away all those components that are keeping me trapped, I need to face them head on, pinpoint exactly what they are, and tackle them one at a time. So I'll give you an example. When I asked you to be brave and bold and share this in the comment section, you are likely not the only one. To date, I've never heard a unique fear. There are fears that are so common between all of us. Let me take that back. Not every single one of us has the same fears, but I do believe that all of us have fears. Some are different for other people, and they change as our skill sets develop. For some people, public speaking is something they get afraid of doing. Role play they get afraid of. They're nervous, they're scared, they're embarrassed. So what I would like you to do is think about your day, a day in the life of roofing sales and pinpoint on a piece of paper all the things that you're afraid of. Knocking doors. Fear of rejection. Fear of conflict. Fear of asking for the business. Fear of coming across as pushy. Fear of not earning enough money. Fear of not succeeding. Fear of your family being right, saying you took this job, saying they could make six figures and multi six figures. Selling roofs, roofing. You have no roofing experience. You have no sales experience. What are you doing, you moron? Believe me, I've had that in my head at times too. We need to identify these. So challenge number one. Grab a piece of paper. Write down that which you are afraid of. If you want to face this in the biggest way, drop it in the comments section below. I just shared all mine with you. Alright, next thing is this. I want you to pick one of them and then I want you to give yourself a challenge that forces you to face that fear every single day. Let's go through some examples, shall we? Fear number one, Afraid of knocking doors. Bring some humor in it. Knock on that door. Here's a challenge for you. Knock on that door. Have a goofy smile when they answer the door and say, hey, I'm in the neighborhood today collecting high fives for smiles. And then reach forward and see if someone's willing to give you a high five. Now, will that fail and backfire? You bet. Will it work? A bunch of times? Of course. Do people smile when they give you a high five? I swear the corner of your lips are like tied to your hand. When you go around and give someone a high five, they can't help but smile. Now they're disarmed. Now you just had a fun way to challenge yourself to overcome those fears. I even had one member of our Pitch pro movement talk about having their team be challenged to do the chicken dance. The minute that the homeowner answers the door, they sing and do a chicken dance. Why? Because if that doesn't scare you, I don't know what does. So that's the challenge. Collecting a high five every single day. All right, here's another example. To me, I was afraid of cold calling. So a challenge that you can participate in if that's you, is when you see a for rent sign, when you see a for sale sign, when you see a commercial property, pick up the phone and dial. Why? You're not going to get better at doing things by avoiding them. You have to force yourself each and Every day to do it. Now here's another one I'm afraid of coming across as being pushy. Watch my video on the 3x rule and learn a practice of being persistent and not pushy. So each and every day that you hear an objection, you can overcome it three times by asking a how or a what question. Now, when you take this journey on for yourself, by pinpointing exactly what what you are afraid of, you're gonna be looking at it right in the face, grabbing that chisel, and slowly, with each dial of that cold call, Chip on the block. With each high five you ask a stranger for, Chip off the block. When you lean into those objections each and every day to conquer your fear of being pushy, Chip off the block. Day in and day out, you keep this momentum up, and before you know it, you'll reveal a new version of you that you didn't recognize. If you saw me a decade and a half ago, you would not even recognize me as a human being. The same energy and enthusiasm is there, but the confidence was not there. The speaking cadence and communication skills were nowhere near as refined. The thick skin that I developed through dealing with conflict, that was a thing of the past. I look back at who I once was and I barely even recognize the atom of a decade and a half ago. And I wish the same journey for you. Because truthfully, that's what I love about this industry. I care nothing about roofs. They mean nothing to me. But what I love about this industry is it is the ultimate life challenge to chip away that block, to reveal the best version of you. So I need to ask, are you in? Are you in the Daily Fear Challenge? If so, drop a comment below. Now, I want to leave you with one more little bonus tip. Just because we're talking about roofing sales doesn't mean that you can't apply this in other areas of your life. I want to share one personal challenge that I take each and every day. Because I'm going to guess that many of you are wired like I am. Meaning you have a hard time focusing the attention span of a nap, maybe add, adhd. Diagnosed, self diagnosed. Whatever it is, the idea of sitting still and focusing is daunting. And I knew for me, that in order to increase my income, I needed to increase my output. And guess what? That would require an increase in my focus. And I am not good. I hate having to sit still for a long time. It just makes me anxious. So to challenge myself to overcome that fear, I do a morning meditation every single morning. And I practice it because it forces me to sit still and silent. And when I first began, even two, three minutes felt like an eternity. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. I'm sitting here. I'm sitting still. And then it was five minutes. I was like, oh, that felt nice. And then it was 10 minutes. I'm like, well, that's not enough. And then it was 20 minutes. And even this morning, I sat for 25 minutes before I even, like, was like, oh, I got what time? Oh, wow. It's been 25 minutes. Fantastic. And I just have learned to develop this calm mind by facing my fears of sitting with myself. So I. Are you in? Are you jumping in on this challenge? Drop a comment and let me know now. I hope this video helps inspire you to tackle one fear each and every day by gamifying it. Having fun? Remember? In summary, your mission is to identify that which you are afraid of. Share it below if you're brave and you're bold. Number two, Find that thing that you're afraid of and give yourself a daily challenge to face that fear each and every day so you can chip away at that block to reveal your confident sales self. Thanks for joining me in this video. If you want to continue, hop into our free training center here. And in the pitch, like a pro roofing sales training video library, I have a whole playlist on building confidence. I think that would pair very well with this video. So hop on here or hang with me on YouTube and jump right into this video and we'll see you on the next one.