This week on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, we’re sharing one of our monthly done-for-you trainings from the Modern Direct Seller Academy: “How to Get Unstuck.” You’d be surprised how many direct sellers feel they’re stuck, muddling through, or held back in their business, but often, the solution to moving forward is simpler than it seems. With some a shift in mindset and some intentional action, we can get ourselves out of any rut and on to our next sale!

Listen to the full “How to Get Unstuck” training here.

Time based notes:

• 3:11 How to Get Unstuck
• 4:20 Get your mindset right
• 6:03 Fill your calendar
• 8:23 Expand your network
• 10:48 Revisit your messages
• 14:16 Reinvigorate your VIP group
• 17:18 Be intentional with your time
• 19:24 Offer business opportunities
• 20:51 Practice makes perfect

How to Shift from Feeling “Stuck”

This week, we’re sharing one of our monthly done-for-you trainings from the Modern Direct Seller Academy: “How to Get Unstuck.” You’d be surprised how many direct sellers feel they’re stuck, muddling through, or held back in their business, but often, the solution to moving forward is simpler than it seems. With some a shift in mindset and some intentional action, we can get ourselves out of any rut and on to our next sale!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely had moments in my business where I felt stuck, or felt like I was spinning my wheels, or there was just something that felt a little bit off, or something that might have been holding me back from the next move I needed to make in my business. And, after training and coaching thousands of direct sellers, I’ve had many conversations with my students around feeling stuck, or being in that weird in-between place, where things just aren’t quite sitting right, and we’re not sure what to do next to move our business forward.

When that “stuck” feeling hits, the first thing that I want to mention is that it’s really important to get our mindset right and make sure that we’re looking at our business from an abundance perspective, not a scarcity perspective, and also to focus on what brings us joy in our business. This business should be fun! You are choosing to be part of your direct sales company and sharing these amazing products with your friends, family, and followers, so we want to make sure that we’re leaning into those areas that bring us joy.

So, if you’re feeling stuck in any of these areas, just do a quick mindset check and adjust things. Maybe that means the practice of journaling, or positive affirmation, or having an accountability buddy that can help cheer you on during those days when things feel a little bit stuck. Our mindset can really affect the way that we go about building our business, and often can hold us back from doing those big things that we really want to do to bring our business to the next level.

So, the next area of being stuck that we hear a lot about is “Help! My calendar is empty! I know that it’s important to get things on the calendar, and to make things happen for my business, but it’s just not happening,” right? And, there’s a million reasons why, maybe, you have an empty calendar. But, let’s focus on what those solutions are to fill your calendar.

So, first and foremost, we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to us, to book vendor events or personal shopping appointments or parties with us; we really have to own it and push ourselves to fill that calendar. So, the first idea is really going back to the basics and asking people if they would like to schedule a party with you. Maybe you have a new spin on parties. Maybe you’re doing things a little bit different to bring back those repeat hosts, and also to encourage new people to take a chance on hosting their own event with you. We also might want to consider hosting our own party! If it’s been a while since you’ve had your own party in your VIP group, or even a text party, or a party in a post, you want to have your own party, right? That’s so, so important to jumpstart things and get unstuck and moving forward. You might also want to book a vendor event, a pop-up event, something to get out there in front of fresh faces so others will book parties from that event. Asking for referrals is another great strategy here. So, think about who you know, who those super fans are that shop with you on the regular, and invite them to refer others into your business.

The last idea here is to keep on making connections. The more conversations you’re having, the more connections you’re making, the more it helps to fill up your calendar. So, if you’ve been a little lazy about those intentional relationship-building skills, that also is cause for an empty calendar, so we need to make some things happen to get ourselves unstuck, because we know, when we have good momentum, things just flow and things get scheduled on our calendar, but sometimes we need to jumpstart it, whether that’s scheduling your own event, or working with some hosts to make sure those events happen.

The next one I hear all the time is, “Help! I feel like I have run out of people to talk to.” Many of my students feel like their network is tapped out, or they’re going back to the same people over and over and over again. I’m a list maker over here. So, for this one, I want to challenge you to make a list of all those potential customers that you think would love your product. And, I really want you to think about your circle, right? I’ve talked about this before, but I’ll remind you again: We have our inner circle—our friends and family. Then, one layer out are those people that are more acquaintances, that maybe we don’t know as well. Another layer out are friends or followers or family of your customers, right? And then, that last ring is really people that you’ve never met before. So, these are brand-new connections.

So, go back to the basics. Go back to your list. Brain-dump it out. We all have too much in our head, so put it down on paper. Who are those people that you might want to talk to you and share more about the business with? Who are those people in your network that are connected to your customers? Let’s ask for those referrals and be really intentional about it. And then, I also recommend doing some networking. Look and see what networking events are in your area, what opportunities there are for you to get in front of new faces and get out there and share your business. This doesn’t happen overnight, and you could definitely do this online in terms of social media, and joining new groups, and following new accounts on Instagram, and building the relationship that way, as well.

Finally, again, I recommend flipping that mindset. I bet there are people that you can talk to in your business, but you haven’t done it for one reason or another. Maybe they’re on your chicken list. Maybe they ghosted you at one point. You didn’t loop back. Whatever it is, think about your mindset around reaching new people and the number of people out there. There are millions of people for you to talk to about your business, so we don’t want to have any limiting beliefs about “there’s not enough people out there for us.”

And, I think, this also comes along with that feeling of being stuck. Like, “I worry that I’m bothering people, or I’m annoying people, or my messages are feeling icky or spammy.” So, I want you to look through the lens of being on the other side of that message. If you got that message, would you think that someone was being spammy or icky? Probably not, right? When you come at your business from a place of service, then you really kind of change the way that you’re looking at building relationships and connecting with people. Really good service is following up with customers, checking in with customers, nurturing relationships with new leads—that’s all part of the exceptional customer service that you provide. So, if you’ve been feeling like you’re being a little bit spammy, or icky, or that there’s something about your messages that just isn’t coming across authentically, review them, and think about being on the receiving side of them. But, more often than not, you’re just doing your job and providing some excellent customer service.

Another one that I hear a lot is, “Help! I’m sending messages. I’m doing the work. I’m putting myself out there. I’m reaching out to people one-to-one, individually, but I’m not getting responses. I’m feeling a little bit ghosted.” So, if that’s the case for you, and you’ve sent 30 messages and aren’t getting a response from anyone, we’re going to want to take a look at that message that you’re sending, and make sure that we’re crafting that message in the best way possible to get a response back.

So, some quick tips on that: Keep your messages to 1, 2, 3 sentences long. We want to keep it short, concise, and to the point. We also want to make sure it’s conversational. This isn’t a way for you to blast or broadcast information at people; we want to make sure that we’re hearing back from people. So, make sure that your message is personal. It’s not just a copy-paste. It’s not a “Hey, girl” kind of message. But, it is authentic, and it’s in your own voice, because your customers want to hear from you directly. And, keep those messages all about them. It’s not, “Hey, I’m trying to hit my goal,” or “Hey, I need this,” or, “Hey, I’m so excited that there’s this special going on.” It’s “Hey, I thought of you,” or “Based on your last order, I was thinking you might really love this.” Keeping those conversations focused on them is going to help you get a response back.

And, feel free to follow-up, too, right? We all get busy. Oftentimes, we send off messages, and people see them while they’re in the line at the grocery store, when they’re in carpool line, while they’re making dinner, while they’re doing other things. And, they see it, they ignore it, and then they forget to come back to it. But, your job is to follow up on those conversations and really keep that conversation going.

So, the next “I’m stuck” that I get a lot is, “I’m stuck. My VIP customer group on Facebook is feeling really quiet.” People ask, “Should I delete everyone in the group and recreate a group? Should I message everyone in the group? What should I do to amp up the energy in my customer group, because I’m just feeling kind of sick of it.” That’s the reality, right? When our groups are quiet, we feel like the energy is down, it doesn’t really motivate us to keep creating really cool content for our followers. But, let me tell you, that is the key here.

To get unstuck, we’re gonna need to reinvigorate the energy in that group. And, part of that is being consistent. If you’re posting once a week, once every couple of weeks, and you’re not seeing any interaction, it’s probably because people are hardly seeing your posts at all. We know this about the algorithm and the visibility in your group, that it’s a very low percentage of people that are actually even seeing your posts. So, don’t be shy about tagging people, or revisiting a post that you’re making in the group by sharing the permalink—that timestamp to drive traffic back to that post—in a personal message.

We also want to make sure that we’re chatting it up in the DMs and PMs with the members of our group. The more that you’re chatting with them individually, the more they’re going to see from you in terms of what the algorithm shows. That’s basically telling Facebook, “You guys are good friends. You’re chatting it up a lot. And so, we want to show more of your content to them.” So, make sure that you’re having those one-to-one conversations. And, don’t be shy about driving traffic back to a post that you really want to gain some visibility on. Maybe it’s a sale that’s happening. Maybe it’s a mystery party you’re throwing. Maybe it’s a new catalog that was released. You can always tag people. You can also send private messages driving people back to that specific post, or even include that in email or text messages that are going out, as well.

If all else fails, we can run a contest, a special, a deal, right? I feel like that always boosts the energy when somebody’s entering a giveaway to win something for free. I’m guilty of it. When things are quiet, what do we do? We do a giveaway, and we get everyone chit-chatting about that again!

The last thing you might want to think about is how to reward your most loyal fans, those customers that are shopping with you on the regular, those top contributors to your group. We want to shed a little bit of light on them, right? So, let’s spotlight them. Let’s highlight them. Let’s give them a bonus gift and really thank them for helping you boost up the engagement in your group. That’s always a nice strategy to let people know, “If you’re one of our top contributors, every month you’re gonna get this, this, or that,” right? It’s kind of a fun perk, even if it’s just a shoutout.

The next one I hear all the time is, “I am stuck. I just don’t have time to work my business.” And, if you’re a leader, you might be hearing this one from your team, where people are saying, “Life is busier than it ever has been. I’m just not quite sure when I’m going to find the time to actually do this.”

I think, when it comes to time management, we have to realize that the beauty of this business is simplicity. And, you can get a lot done in your business when you’re intentional with your time. So, if you have 20 minutes each day that adds up to just a couple of hours a week to be touching your business, and you are still going to do leaps and bounds better than anyone else in your company, right? So, 20 minutes a day, focusing on the most important money-making activity. This is where it really comes down to prioritizing what matters the most: active selling, building relationships, and creating content. You can do those three things in 20 minutes or less each day, and that is going to boost up your business.

So, being intentional about your time is absolutely critical. You might want to book meetings with yourself and not cancel on yourself. I literally put it on my Google calendar, and I say that I’m going to work on something specific for this block of time. Time-blocking is a great strategy. And also, just recognizing when you do your best work and when it fits into your life. If you have littles at home, this might be during naptime. This might be before they wake up in the morning. This might be after they go to bed. If you’re working a 9:00 to 5:00, this might be before work, on your lunch break, after work, right? So, look at your lifestyle and really decide where your business fits into it. I guarantee that you can find 20 minutes a day to carve out in your schedule to make sure that you’re working your business, and then you have to hold yourself to it.

The last one I want to cover is something else that I hear over and over: “I’m stuck. I am really scared to recruit or talk to anyone about the business opportunity.” And, especially if you’re just starting out in the business, having a conversation about the business opportunity can feel really scary. But, I have to reassure you that taking action is the answer again here to get unstuck, right? Keep in mind that the business opportunity is about them. It’s not something that you need to take personally if they say, “No thanks. Not right now. Not interested.” It’s not about you. It’s the business opportunity.

We have to have that abundance mindset that your next best teammate is just waiting for you to ask them to join you. So, flipping your mindset, again, to thinking about all the amazing people out there that would benefit from the business opportunity that you have. Make a list. Who are those people that you would absolutely love to have on your team? Reach out to them personally! And then, again, keep the opportunity conversation conversational, and keep it going over time. Most people are not going to make a split-second decision to join your team. So, you want to make sure that you’re continuing that conversation on the regular, and looping back to it, so when the time is right, you’re the first person they think of when they’re ready to say “Yes.”

Practice makes perfect here! The more conversations you have, the easier that it gets when it comes to team building. I hope that one of these “getting stuck” topics resonated with you, and you’re able to take what you learned today and apply it directly to your business.

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Take Action: What is one strategy that you could implement to get unstuck?