Sometimes, as a leader, I feel like I need to appear as if I have it all together.
Heck, as an agent, I felt the same way—embarrassed if I didn’t have all the answers or if my client knew more than I did.
Until I set my ego aside and focused on what I could learn and contribute back.
There’s a subconscious fear that if people truly knew the truth about my humanness, they wouldn’t want to work with me.
Today, I was on the phone with a teammate who has been with me from the beginning. He even paid to coach with me before joining the team and eventually becoming an assistant team leader,
We reminisced about those coaching days—how I gave it everything I had, even while being in a really tough spot myself. To be honest, I went from making about $200k a year to making $30k last year. I fell into panic prospecting and worked 60-80 hours a week. I still don’t know how we made it through.
As embarrassing as it is to admit, we were facing foreclosure, falling behind on payments, dealing with repossessions, and had completely depleted our savings.
But I just kept going. I vividly remember winning a Louis Vuitton purse at an event—a purse we had completely manifested to pay the electric bill that was about to be cut off the next day. Talk about living on the edge and feeling the pressure.
Looking back, I see how bad it sounds. But in those moments, I just knew what I needed to do. I didn’t look down. I didn’t crawl under a rock.
Was I stressed? A little. But more than that, I felt the pressure.
Telling my teammate this story today went against the narrative I used to believe—that I needed to have everything together to earn their trust.
Now, they trust me because they see the work I’ve put in, the results I’ve achieved, and the number of times I’ve brought myself back from the brink.
One thing about entrepreneurship and sales is that nothing is fair. You have to keep punching forward.
As we talked, I said: “Man, this year has been something else. We went from making $30k last year to over 6 figures this year. Your production has doubled, we’ve brought a teammate back into production who hadn’t done anything in years, and another teammate is in the midst of transforming her life and stepping into her potential. Not to mention the teammate who would’ve never made it through her first few transactions without our support or the one who is making huge leaps for her family by going all in on her business.”
Has it been tough and challenging? Absolutely.
Success is not linear.
The truth is, the more real and authentic I am about the challenges I’ve faced, the small triumphs, and my willingness to learn, the more my team respects me and works harder.
We’re all human. We’re all getting our butts kicked in the arena (if we’re actively playing) and making the best plays we can in the moment with the information and conditioning we have.
It’s such a freeing realization.
When football players are in the Super Bowl, they’re getting their butts kicked, making the best plays they can in the moment—and yet, they’re still crushing it.
Keep your head in the game. Be real. You’ll win in the end.
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