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When I was about to graduate from university I had a big desire to be financially independent.

All my life up to that point, I relied on my parents financially.

Unfortunately, I had no idea what to do for work when I finally did graduate.

What I did know was that for me to become financially independent, I had to earn a lot of money.

With this desire at the back of my mind, I came across an article that was published in 2015 by Business Insider called “One of the only ways to get really, really rich.”

In that article it said that when you’re working for someone else, your upside is always capped.

As 21-year old me read that article, I decided that I wanted to mainly work for myself.

And in the years leading up to my graduation, I decided to read your typical self-help books like Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

These books further cemented in my mind that I wanted to work primarily for myself. This meant that employment was out of the equation for me.

One day, I came across Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant online.

This idea talks about 4 quadrants representing 4 primary ways to make money:

• Employee (E)

• Self-Employed (S)

• Business Owner (B)

• Investor (I)

What I got from this idea was that if I want to become rich, I need to make it a goal to be on the right side of the quadrant (B and I) since it seems like most wealthy individuals are either Business Owners or Investors.

However, I saw becoming a business owner straight out of university as too daunting.

I didn’t have any money of my own to become an investor.

And being employed was out of the equation for me.

This left me with one option: self-employment — owning a job and working for myself.

I also knew that one day I wanted to start my own business, but working for myself would be the first logical step.

And so, I decided to get into sales. Life Insurance Sales as a Financial Advisor to be specific.

It seemed like a good career path to becoming a business owner while potentially making a lot of money.

But, I had one problem.

I never sold anything in my life. Ever. And so I had no idea how to sell.

A part of me also felt embarrassed to reach out to people to try to sell them insurance.

More than that, I was (and to some extent, still am) a people-pleaser. So I hated the idea of being rejected.

The Untold Truth

Sales is hard.

Then again, if I wanted an easy life, I wouldn’t have decided to dream big.

Sales is hard mentally. Emotionally. And it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

There were days where it took me an entire hour of staring at my phone deciding whether I should call a particular prospect or not.

There were days where I questioned my own self-worth because I got rejected so many times in a row.

There were days where I just wanted to crawl into bed feeling defeated because it was almost the end of the month and I still didn’t have a single sale.

Sales is hard. At first. Especially when you aren’t accustomed to it.

But I chose to stick to it. I chose not to quit. I chose to learn from temporary defeats and build myself up into a better and better person.

And because I decided to keep pushing through:

• I grew thicker skin

• My work ethic improved

• I learned valuable business and life lessons

• I qualified 4X to the Million Dollar Round Table

• I was able to travel all expenses paid to 3 different countries as company incentives

The floodgates eventually opened for me and my income even increased exponentially in the 6 years I was a financial advisor.

But it’s not enough to just blindly keep pushing through.

Looking back, what I did that contributed to those results is that I reflected and built up my self-image.

I did this to the point that eventually my outer results started to reflect my own inner concept of self.

I had to essentially kill off the old, fearful, and insecure version of myself for the new version to take his place.

I had to shift my identity from a shy and fearful Zach to a courageous and confident Zach.

And that takes work. Work that includes a lot of pain in order to grow and transform.

How to Succeed In Sales

There are a lot of ways to succeed in sales. I’ll distill what I’ve learned in my 6-year sales career into 3 most important ideas.

1. Look for great mentors and coaches

One of the ways I was very blessed in my sales career is that I had very good mentors in our team. That is, people who had the results I wanted.

My direct leader and main mentor was a 23-year MDRT Qualifier during my first year in the team.

The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) is a global, independent association of life insurance and financial services professionals.

Generally, the MDRT is considered an elite group within the financial services industry, and only about 2% of advisors qualify for membership based on sales and production volume.

So, she was someone 10 steps ahead of me in my career and we met regularly so that I can learn the mindset and outlook of a successful financial advisor.

We also had someone in our team who was a 1-year MDRT Qualifier during my first year in the team.

I learned more strategic and tactical ideas from her.

Sometimes we learn more from someone 1 or 2 steps ahead of us than from someone 10 steps ahead of us.

I also had access to great coaches that helped me recognize and release my limiting beliefs and helped me gain a better awareness of myself.

The more I became aware of myself and my limiting beliefs — the more responsible I became of my choices, decisions, and actions.

I wrote more about the difference between mentors and coaches here.

2. Focus on Income Generating Activities

Most people in sales are distracted.

They spend too much time on activities that don’t contribute directly to their income.

They spend too much time on:

• Scrolling through the timeline

• Personal tasks during the work day

• Data entry and encoding

• Other administrative tasks

• Unproductive meetings

Being in commission only sales full-time can be a double edged sword. In the insurance industry, you have full ownership of your time.

Which means you can work anytime you want. This also means you can choose to not work for 3 days in a row.

The downside?

If you don’t work, you don’t earn.

So what I’ve found to be the best way to succeed in sales is to focus on activities like:

• Prospecting

• Setting sales appointments

• Presenting solutions to potential clients

• Following up on prospects

• Getting referrals

You’ve got to prioritize sales generating activities to be a high-performer.

3. Work on building up your self-image

The reason you haven’t achieved your sales goals yet is because you aren’t the type of person that can achieve those sales goals… yet.

Your inner reality will reflect your outer reality.

If you believe yourself to be someone who isn’t good enough, unresourceful, and bad at sales, then guess what?

Your results will reflect that belief.

You have to work on identifying your limiting beliefs, questioning them, and forming new and empowering beliefs about yourself to be able to succeed in sales.

It’s not enough to have the right skills.

Because while having the right skills is important in succeeding in sales, someone with a lack of belief in themselves will be prone to self-sabotaging.

So even if someone has all the right skills, their limiting belief will act as a glass ceiling towards their success.

Do you know why it’s called a glass ceiling?

Because you can already see success at the other side of the glass but you can’t break through.

Once you shift your self-image into that of a successful person, you can create success on autopilot.

Everything in Life Is Sales

Whether you are actually in a sales career or not, you are selling every single day.

Think about it.

You have a job interview? You are selling the concept of your value to your potential employer.

Got a presentation at work? You are selling your ideas.

Convincing your kid to eat vegetables? Again, you are selling to them.

Starting a business? You have to sell your products or services.

Let’s look at another perspective.

Do you have dreams that you want to reach and aspirations you want to go after?

You’re going to have to sell yourself on pursuing those things to make them a reality.

So it doesn’t matter if your "customer” is your child, your co-workers, your boss, or even yourself. You’re constantly selling ideas to other people and even to yourself.

You are either guiding whoever you are talking to to a purchase, or an agreement.

Some sales conversations involve a monetary exchange, where others may not. But the latter still involves an exchange of beliefs, a trade of ideas.

At the end of the day, sales is one thing: Influence.

And if you want to create success for yourself in your life, you need to learn how to influence yourself and others.

Even the greatest leaders of human history like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr. were able to create the impact they did on society because of their influence.

And that influence required them to sell their ideas to countless individuals.

Many people believe that sales is unethical and manipulative.

And while it can be used in unethical ways, it is inherently neutral.

Just like a sword which can be used to harm, maim, and destroy. That same sword can also be used to empower, protect, and save others.

In Conclusion

When you learn how to succeed in sales and you’re able to apply it in your life and business, you can expect to live a life you truly desire.

You can achieve:

• Time Freedom

• Financial Freedom

• Location Freedom

In essence, you will be able to live life on your terms.

And to recap, the untold truth of sales is that it’s hard at first until you force yourself to grow into a better and better person.

If you want to succeed in sales or business you need to:

1. Look for great mentors and coaches

2. Focus on income generating activities

3. Work on building up your self-image

As for me, within those 6 years of working as a financial advisor, I can happily say that I’ve achieved financial independence.

I’ve also built up the courage to start my own business (which means I’m in the process of transitioning from self-employed to business owner).

Now, I’m working on financial freedom. And with my journey in reaching that, I aim to share the lessons I learn along the way to those who want to follow that path.

That’s it for this issue of The Empowered Entrepreneur.

Hope you have a great week!

All the love,
All the power,

— Zach Mar

P.S. Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways that I can be of help to you:

1. Follow me on Instagram here if you want a source of bite-sized ideas and content that can help you reach your next level in life.

2. Book a free kick-off conversation for one-on-one coaching here if you are a financial advisor looking to double your case size.

3. Download my goal setting guide here if you are wanting to create clarity on your desired outcomes (Free until 100 downloads — and then I convert it to a paid resource).

P.P.S. If you are from the Philippines and are looking for a personal mastery workshop to help you experience growth and transformation, check out Discovery by I Am Plus Coaching and Training Systems. It’s where my journey of self evolution personally got fast-tracked.