So you will remember, after six whole months, I finally have a J.O.B. (that’s a job, for normal people). Not just any job. A good job. A job well suited to me – one that was going to propel me towards my destiny (Superwoman); a job that would be challenging and give me the opportunity for development.

This company was awesome. It was small enough to know all your colleagues, yet it had enough gravitas in the market to be exposed to business technology in a way I never thought possible.

My Director was training me to become a Business Development Manager (BDM) ~ fancy title aye? My role essentially was to help sell new technologies/solutions (namely in IT and Telecoms) and become a specialist in Cloud based solutions and their capabilities.

I would have to prospect for new business, design high level solutions to meet business requirements, support the delivery of these solutions and Account Management. (I realise I have just become one of those annoyingly corporate people that just uses all these words, half of which make absolutely no sense to anybody in the real world! Feel free to reach out and I will clarify)

I was dealing with large contracts, large sums of money and ermm… some pretty senior people. Like I’m talking interfacing with MD/CEOs of small to medium enterprises. #NoBiggie.

Surely this should be the most exciting time yet… why was I filled with so much fear?

1.    You Are Good Enough

Ok down to the facts:

At this point, my experience was limited to 87 days on a fake business management trainee scheme and 6 months unemployment, whereby the only thing I had been on time to was a trip to the Job Centre.

Despite this, I power dressed, I power walked (yup … this is an actual thing) and I power spoke (projected confidence). Yet under this veneer, there was a whole heap of self-doubt. Am I good enough?

For a start, being one of the youngest people in the office sometimes left me feeling alienated – my experience was limited (if not at zero) and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I could actually do the job.

• Can I sell complicated Business Technology solutions … of which I currently know nothing about?
• What if my clients find out I have a law degree rather than computer science or a degree in that area?
• What if I say or do the wrong thing, worse yet what if my handshake is weak?
• What if I look stupid?
• What if I am not good enough?

This continued for months and actually, I got the very same feeling when I moved to my current job. Everyone seems to go through it – both male and female; regardless of level or seniority.

What I have learnt however, is that, the key is to believe in yourself and your capabilities – after all the person who hired you clearly does. You need to be OK with asking questions and asking for help.

In my opinion, you need to spend time with ‘you’ getting to know your own USP.

You need to look around you, work out who is in position that inspires you and seek to imitate them with your own personal twist.

Find out what works for you, and what you’re good at, and make sure everyone knows it – but don’t be cocky about it.

In my case, I sought to imitate  my director:

He was an extraordinary salesmen and relationship manager. He had the innate ability to ask the right questions; getting to the root cause of a business problem whilst being endearing and credible. He was basically like a CSI detective.

I was going to copy everything from his questioning skills, his leadership style to his desire to build long lasting business relationships.

Always find someone in the workplace that you can model yourself on, it will serve as both inspiration and direction

Practical Tip:

• Write down 3 skills you have, work out how you can develop them, either by being coached or reading
• Find a role model within your company and ask them how they overcame their self-doubt
• Finally, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions

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2.    The Expert Was Once a Beginner

Everything comes with time – experience included

After 7 months at the company I had sold my first account.  I could officially call myself an Account Manager as I actually had an account to manage. My client was a luxury carpentry/joinery company located just outside of London. I had built a strong relationship with both the Finance Manager and one of their Directors. Funny enough, this company was my favourite account … Shock.

Their Director had requested we provide pricing for an additional product. At the time, we didn’t offer the product that he wanted, so I had to go via a third party. The third party quoted me £30k for this product and I remember thinking… ‘£30k damn that’s a lot – more than my salary.’ (Bear in mind this is without margin or mark up, so no profit). I decided to call up the company director.

 “Hey Carl, we can provide you with this product, its £30k but as you are a valued client we are offering this to you at cost”

Right now, I am thinking “Yes Mel, great work, nice sales tactic there, girl you are SO clever… you are winning in life” #FistPump

Well … I wasn’t really.  Even if it did sell, we would make no money and therefore no profit which goes against purpose of my role. #Awks

Understandably when my Director found out, he was not best pleased – I think his words were along the lines of

‘How does a business make any money if you’re selling products at cost price because you like the person?”

Yeah, I was out- I had nothing, no response, no excuse, nothing.

Following that incident, my director began coaching me around business revenues, profits and margins. He said to me “It is OK to make mistakes, it is not OK not to learn from them”, furthermore it’s better that it’s done earlier on in your career. (Though the fact the client didn’t buy the product probably helped me keep my job)

The point from the above is that, we are all beginners once and that’s okay.

In fact, embrace it – use the time to fail, to make mistakes, to gain industry/product knowledge. The fact is most of our important lessons come through trial and error and with time these lessons will shape you and your career.

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Take time to be a master of your craft and to actually understand what you do. Take time to be a beginner.

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3.    Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

Probably my greatest lesson…

“The days you are most uncomfortable are the days you learn the most about yourself” ~ Mary Bean

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable because days where I would feel frustrated, scared and sometimes even teary, were the times I was learning, developing and growing. Moving out of your comfort zone births new things, things you never even thought were possible. In my most uncomfortable days, I began to understand myself better, what I like and dislike,what I am good at (and bad at), values, passions and subsequently – my career.

Being uncomfortable is great; it changes mindsets, it causes you to focus, it encourages you to do whatever it takes to hit that goal. Ultimately being uncomfortable dictates your behaviour; if you hate a job it will cause you to leave, if you don’t understand something it will cause you to learn, if you’re not happy with your life, it will cause you to do something that makes you happy and if you’re doing just OK… it will cause you to do better.

When my Director would set me, what seemed like, impossible sales targets which put me completely out of my comfort zone, I would embrace them (rather than just cry- I cried a lot). It was in these moments that I began to ‘fly’. It was in these moments where I began to read more.  I read blogs, industry magazines and autobiographies of great business minds, whatever it took to get me hitting those targets.  Being uncomfortable changes behaviours.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s going to happen a lot throughout your career; these are the precious growth moments and with this let us not forget; pressure is what turns coal into valuable diamonds.

“In life you either need inspiration or desperation” ~Tony Robbins

These are the points when change comes.

Mel x