Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul

I hate selling. It is the worst thing in the world. I hate being sold to and I hate having to sell myself to someone. It just feels… gross. I recently had an interview for a writing gig and the client asked me to “sell myself” to them. I instantly felt myself get angry. Luckily it was a phone call so they couldn't see my face but in that instant, I had to take a deep breath before I said anything.

Selling to me feels like setting myself up for rejection. I take it VERY personally.

If you are like me and you hate selling, there are salespeople who say you don’t really hate sales, instead you likely believe that you are manipulating others, not working for or with them. You believe that selling requires you to convince someone to buy something they don’t want, don’t need, and can’t afford. While this may be true my true hate of sales lies in the fact that I have to sell myself.

If anyone asked me for a recommendation for another comedian or comedy writer I would have a list a mile long, and great things to convince others to hire them. But when they ask me to sell myself, well I find it harder to do so. Why? I think it has to do with my fear of being braggy or sounding like I am being cocky. I’m none of those things but when you tell people great things about you, it seems… wrong. So how do I sell myself?

Well I don’t sell myself, I sell my skills. Some of you have stopped reading and have just said, “James that’s you selling yourself.” Maybe but when I sell my skills I see them more as tools or items that will assist the client in their ultimate goal of the project.

This project was looking for specific skills I possess and when I told them how those skills would benefit them it led to telling them how it would fulfill their needs, not how I would fulfill their needs, thus if they reject that skill they are not rejecting me.

And it works. I know my skills, I know they are part of a team that I possess so I treat them like a team and not like me. It helps me see the skills as tools for clients as opposed to seeing myself as the tool for the client. Sure they are renting my brain and fingers for their projects but my brain and my fingers are merely tools.

Selling your skills is not selling yourself and by extension your soul. It is instead renting your tolls to someone for a predetermined period of time, like if you rented a lawnmower or a truck. I found that I could sell my skills without selling myself. So if you struggle selling what you do, remember to see those skills as tools, not as you. You’ll be able to sell those tools and skills so much easier.

Now use your tools and skills to make some Funny Money!