About Tracy Beavers: Tracy Beavers is the founder of Tracy Beavers Coaching, where she helps business owners ditch the overwhelming burden of business ownership. She crafts a clear roadmap of action steps and creative solutions to get clients from where they are to where they want to be. Gain clarity. Gain focus. Keep your sanity. For 12 years, she worked as a claims investigator for an insurance company, which provided valuable insights into human behavior under stress. She gained expertise in navigating complex and painful situations, coaching individuals through challenges, and identifying their next steps. Combining this experience with her marketing education, she has transformed her passion into a business focused on helping people. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Tracy.
In this episode, Nancy and Tracy discuss the following:
- Exploring why entrepreneurs and individuals fear sales
- Tracy’s method of selling without explicitly selling
- The importance of building genuine connections and relationships
- Finding authenticity and ease in entrepreneurship
- The importance of community for entrepreneurs
Key Takeaways:
- Everybody is fearful of sales.
- Looking at their entire business structure, I can determine their needs.
- I believe in building a business with authenticity and with ease.
- We’ll never get started if we put too much pressure on ourselves out of the gate to have something perfect or all the bells and whistles with it.
“When you first start a business, or maybe you’re a year or so in, there is a lot of overwhelm that comes with it because you start the business with a passion for doing something. Let’s say it’s helping women with health and wellness, or like me, I’m a business and sales coach. Then you find yourself being the chief cook and bottle washer, learning the tech, building the website, building the courses, and spending all the plates and doing everything, which feels like a lot. And so, what I like to do with my clients is talk to them about their business, get a very solid look at the framework of it.” – TRACY
“Selling without selling is a style I created over my years of experience because I would have people come to me and ask me routinely, how are you so successful in sales? You know, how do you gain market share so easily? And the way I do this is through the selling without selling method. My approach is to take the sales out of the equation. I want my clients and students to take the word sell or sales completely out of their language, out of their brain, and park it. And then we’re going to show up as our best selves. We will look for opportunities to make true human connections with other humans who want to make a true connection. And then we’re going to see where the conversation leads. Because in sales, it’s not, not always about me. The next person I meet will want to buy something from me.Rather, my approach is the next person I meet I want to see where the relationship goes. They could be an ideal client for me, but they could also be my next best collaboration partner and open up, open, and introduce me to their entire audience. They could also be my next best referral source. ” – TRACY
“The biggest thing that I will say that I want everybody to remember and audience lean in when I say this being an entrepreneur is freaking hard. You cannot go it alone. It is a roller coaster of emotion. People that are, it doesn’t matter if you’re on day one, day five, or year 15, and you’re making $80 million a year. Everybody feels imposter syndrome creep in, everybody feels doubt, everybody feels afraid, and the people who aren’t willing to talk about it are just not telling you the truth. And so, what I highly recommend for everybody is to find a community of support, even if it’s a free community.” – TRACY
Connect with Tracy Beavers:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-beavers-b650449/
- Tracy Beavers Coaching:https://www.tracybeavers.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter:https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website:https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi, it’s Nancy Calabrese, and it’s time again for Conversational selling – the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today and it always starts with the human conversation. Today we’re speaking with Tracy Beaver’s CEO and founder of Tracy Beaver’s Coaching, where she helps business owners ditch the overwhelm of business ownership. With 20 year’s experience, Tracy has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs with everything from overcoming the fear of sales to growing their business visibly through organic marketing strategies. Tracy is a public speaker and a published author. She has been featured on top business podcasts and has been a regular contributor on one of her hometown’s premier TV shows. She is the creator of two online programs, Business Visibility Made Easy and Be a Confident Entrepreneur. Welcome to the show, Tracy. This is gonna be a fun discussion.
Tracy Beavers: Thanks for having me Nancy, I’m excited to be here. [1:23]
Nancy Calabrese: Oh, I’m so excited to have you. So, one thing that jumps out to me, as I said earlier, that you help business owners ditch the overwhelm of business ownership. What do you mean by that?
Tracy Beavers: Well, when you first start a business, or maybe you’re a year or so in, there is a lot of overwhelm that comes with it because you start the business with a passion for doing something. Let’s say it’s helping women with health and wellness, or like me, I’m a business and sales coach. And then you find yourself being the chief cook and bottle washer, learning the tech, building the website, building the courses and you’re having to spend all the plates and do all the things and it feel like a lot. And so, what I like to do with my clients is talk to them about their business, get a very solid look at the framework of it. What is their goal? What is their vision? What is the end game for them that they want to, what do they wanna do in the world? And then we backtrack and reverse engineer to what do we need to focus on now? What can wait? What can we put in their parking lot of things to execute when the time is right. Like, you know, you can’t come out of the gate as a business owner and, um, try to do all the things at one time because nothing’s going to get done well. And so, like, for example, for me, I’ve been in this space several years, and I’ve talked about and thought about having my own podcast for a long time, but its ha the timing hasn’t been right. And so that’s where that overwhelm can creep in. If I’m not careful, I could put a lot of pressure on myself to get that podcast out into the world. [3:07]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: But what I’ve got to do is figure out where in the business that makes sense to do. So just mapping out the priorities so that they can take it one step at a time.
Nancy Calabrese: Interesting. Why are so many entrepreneurs fearful of sales?
Tracy Beavers: Oh gosh, it’s not just entrepreneurs, it’s everybody. Everybody is fearful of sales. I mean, ask any little Girl Scout who loves to be in the Girl Scouts, but now all of a sudden, she’s gotta sell cookies. It’s intimidating to everybody. And I think, just in my experience, from having over 20 years in sales experience, primarily from corporate, and then in my practice, being able to help people overcome the fear of sales and find their path with sales. It feels icky. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of history around sales. Snake oil salesmen, used car salesmen, that stereotype doesn’t feel good. And we have all had experiences where someone has been overly aggressive with us in a sales capacity. And it did not feel good, and we did not like it, and we are afraid we’re going to come across the same way. [4:25]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: And we don’t want anybody to think badly of us. We don’t want to be judged. We don’t want to come across as aggressive or salesy or spammy. And so that’s where we stop. We’re like, you know, we may think we’re the best in the world at what we do, but when it comes to actually selling it and pitching it, it’s like, oh boy, what is everybody else going to think? You know? [4:46]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. Huh. Well, how do you sell without selling?
Tracy Beavers: Yes, that’s a style that I created over my years of experience because I would have people come to me and ask me routinely, how are you so successful in sales? You know, how do you gain market share so easily? And the way I do this is through the selling without selling method. And my approach is we take the sales out of the equation. I want my clients and students to take the word sell or sales just completely out of their language, out of their brain and park it. And then what we’re going to do is we are going to show up as our best selves. We are going to look for opportunities to be of service, make true human connections with other humans that want to make a true connection. And then we’re going to see where, where the conversation leads. Because in sales, it’s not, not always about me. The next person I meet is going to want to buy something from me. [5:50]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: Rather, my approach is the next person I meet, I want to see where the relationship goes. They could be an ideal client for me, but they could also be my next best collaboration partner and open up, open and introduce me into their entire audience. They could also be my next best referral source. Again, introducing me to people that do want my services, or that might introduce me to more people. And that’s how we become successful in sales. We lead with our heart, we focus on being of service, and if what you’ve got to sell or offer is in alignment with what that person is looking for, then the sale will automatically happen when they find out what you do and who you are, and that you are truly a kind, warm-hearted human being who’s not going to try to pounce on them the minute you find out they have a need. [6:48]
Nancy Calabrese: Right, no, I agree with you. So, I saw on your website, and I don’t remember what it was called, you start with begin with the end in mind, then create a roadmap and then stay the course for success. Can you elaborate on those points?
Tracy Beavers: Absolutely, it goes back to your first question of how do I eliminate overwhelm? And so We begin with the end of my meaning. Okay, Nancy What do you want to offer your audience? What do you want your paid offers to be? What do you want your business to look like? Do you want to have a podcast? Do you want to have your own Facebook group? Do you want to create a course or a group coaching program? Do you want to use? Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or do you just want to focus on one platform? And so, we kind of get those things mapped out of how do you want this thing to go? And keeping in mind what income do you want to make? You know, I have a lot of people that are like me, I started building my businesses alongside my full-time career because I had a full-time career that was well over six figures. And there was no way with our family that I could just walk away from that. and not make any money for a while. That wasn’t going to be fair to my husband and my children. And so, I help a lot of people do that. And so, one of the questions I ask them is, you know, what income are you looking to replace? And then we reverse engineer through and think, okay, if you’re trying to replace six figures a year, that probably isn’t going to happen in the first year out of the gate, but what could happen? What offers could we put together? [8:36]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: What marketing strategies do you need? And then we roadmap it. And I literally make a roadmap list when I work with my elite one-to-one clients. And you and I were, you know, if we, you, and I were in one-to-one coaching and we got off of a 45-minute session, I would say, okay, Nancy, I’m going to go in and update our notes. And I have a Google Doc and a Google folder where I keep all our work together. And on that Google Doc, I have road mapped out your entire business structure, so that I can see where some of the holes are. Like, do you have enough lead magnets? Do you have enough offers? What’s the pricing of those offers? And is that going to get you to the income you want? Do you have a podcast? Do we need to, all that stuff. And then after our session, I’m going to say, okay, Nancy, for the next two weeks until our next session, these are the four or five things I want you to focus on. You’re not gonna scroll off into any other direction. We’re going to focus on these things. And the other things we’re going to get to but that’s where the roadmap comes in handy. Because I don’t want you getting too far ahead of yourself and getting overwhelmed. [9:41]
Nancy Calabrese: Got it. How do you know? How do you know what to prioritize in a person’s roadmap?
Tracy Beavers: Great question. So looking at their entire business structure, I can determine and their needs. Like if they’re telling me I’m not making any money, okay, we’ve got to dive in and figure out some offers we can put together, some marketing we can put together to get some income coming in to get that pressure off of them. If they tell me, okay, Tracy, I have this idea for a course, I just went through a great course that teaches me how to build the course, but I don’t know how to create the pre-launch runway, the launch itself and the post-launch runway and have good results. And so what, what is the most emergent need for them? And then we, then we work from there. [10:34]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. Interesting. You know, how long in you on average does it take for a business to turn around?
Tracy Beavers: Tell me what you mean by turn around.
Nancy Calabrese: Well, with your coaching, right? When do you see most of your clients get the light bulb going off? You know, like that they’re totally aware of the changes that need to be made and they’re implementing them.
Tracy Beavers: For some of my clients, it happens immediately. Immediately meaning within two or three sessions of us working together, which I meet with my clients every other week for a four-month timeframe. Because I find that four-month timeframe is the sweet spot of, you know, two months is too short, six months feels a little too long. But it doesn’t take them four months to get to their goal. Some of my clients have. You know, like one of their goals was I want to increase revenue for my next launch and my next launch is in 30 days. And we worked together, and their next launch produced $15,000 more in sales than it did in the previous launch. Um, I have, it does vary. It varies upon and it varies because everybody’s business is different. Everyone’s ability to act fast and quickly to get the results is different. Um, you know, if I’m working with somebody who is absolutely an entrepreneur and that’s all they’re doing and they don’t have a full-time job, they’re going to be able to act quickly and implement faster versus someone who has a full-time job in a family and needs to move a little slower. And then also, if I’m working with someone who’s been in business for a few years and they have a bankroll of income saved that they can use for expenses and do some things like hire out some things to get it done faster or you know, get, you know, hire the help that we need to make this thing move faster. So the end, and in the end, I can’t promise anybody results because that’s up to the individual person. But what I can do is map out their priorities, give them the awesome ideas, the creative solutions that they’re looking for, the out of the box thinking. And then it’s up to them to execute. [12:52]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. You’ve stated that business growth does not have to be a struggle. Can you expand on that?
Tracy Beavers: Yes, it doesn’t. I believe in building a business with authenticity and with ease. And what I mean by that is, you know, we think that some of the things we do in business have to be super fancy. That they have to have fireworks and sparklers attached to them and everything has to be over the top. And the best thing anybody’s ever seen in an online business. And that’s just not the truth. If we put too much pressure on ourselves out of the gate to have something perfect or to have all the bells and whistles with it, we’re never going to get started. And so, I help my clients find the ease in growing their business, primarily through that roadmap structure that I lead them through. And with me prioritizing, it brings a sense of calm where they feel like they can exhale and they’re like, okay, I’m going to focus on what Tracy has outlined for us. And the other thing I do for my clients that’s special is they have unlimited box or access to me in between our bi-weekly, our bi-monthly sessions. And what that allows them to do is also exhale and breathe. Because if we had a session today and you went in to execute on some of the things we talked about tomorrow, and you got stuck in how to question. [14:25]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: You don’t want to wait two weeks to talk to me. That’s not effective. That’s not effective coaching in my opinion. And so you could just simply hit the button on the Voxer app and say, okay, Tracy, we talked about, you know, executing this strategy. We talked about my creating two new lead magnets. Here are my ideas. I’m trying to name them, trying to get some graphics ready for them. I’m going to send you the graphics. I’m going to send you the wording I have so far. I need your feedback. And then, I look at it and I voxer you back immediately. Well, within 24 to 48 hours, if I’m traveling or, you know, something comes up, but most of the time it’s fairly immediately. And that allows you to have that comfort and guidance, you know, and not feel like you’re in this alone, wondering, am I creating something that nobody’s going to wanna buy or download? [15:18]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. You know, also in doing my research, you stated that you had to be honest the first year and building your online business was way more difficult than it looked from the outside. Why was that?
Tracy Beavers: Oh gosh, yes it was. So primarily because the online space is a completely different beast than anything I had ever been involved in. So, I have had businesses off and on, gosh, ever since, let me think, maybe in my 30s. And so, I’ve been an entrepreneur off and on for a long time. And then seven years ago, I decided to get really serious about it because I was fed up with corporate. And so, I hatched a plan to leave and I started building. And here I come in from a very successful marketing and sales career. Every business development role I had; I was very successful. I gained market share for companies like Crazy, built multi-million-dollar portfolios, had people coming to me all the time asking for advice. And I’m a highly educated, intelligent woman. And I thought, and much like you, I’m sure. We’re used to mastering things quickly and learning fast and producing. And I got into this online space, and I was like, what the heck is everybody talking? I felt like I needed a decoder ring, first of all, because what’s a funnel? What’s Kajabi? Oh my gosh, do I need a website? How do I build a website? What platform do I use? What’s a lead magnet? You know, what’s a sales funnel versus a list building funnel? [17:00]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: Do I need to run ads? How do I do that? I was just like; you’ve got to be kidding me. I felt like, I really was like, oh my gosh, I feel like I’m learning an entirely new language and skillset. And I was, because tech’s not my love language and in my 20-year career, I didn’t have to build a website. I didn’t have to, I could create something and record it, but I didn’t have to tuck it in somewhere for somebody else to access it, you know? I mean, it was just, what’s a landing page? I was like, what do you mean? What’s a landing page? They go, you have to build a landing page. I’m like, what is that? I don’t know. What’s that? So that’s how I was just like, oh my gosh. And then I thought, what have I gotten myself into? I was like, man, I just want to help people, but building this infrastructure in order to reach the people and be able to help them, that was a lot. [17:52]
Nancy Calabrese: What is that? Wow. Well, I can’t believe we’re up in time. What is the one takeaway you wanna leave the audience with?
Tracy Beavers: Oh, that’s such a good question. Let me think, because there’s so many things. The biggest thing that I will say that I want everybody to remember and audience lean in when I say this, being an entrepreneur is freaking hard. You cannot go it alone. It is a roller coaster of emotion. People that are, it doesn’t matter if you’re on day one or you’re on day fifth or year 15 and you’re making $80 million a year. Everybody feels imposter syndrome creep in, everybody feels doubt, everybody feels afraid, and the people that aren’t willing to talk about it, they’re just not telling you the truth. And so, what I highly recommend for everybody is to find a community of support, even if it’s a free community. My free Facebook group is a prime example of that. We have over 2000 entrepreneurs in there. It is free for you to come in and promote yourself anytime and post something that you need help with or something that you’re excited about and feel that community of love and support around you. When other people, when you say, my podcast downloads are in the toilet, somebody help me. And the podcast person will come and be like, yeah, let’s talk about it. Let’s have a coffee chat. How can I help you out? And so get into some communities where you don’t feel alone and know that it’s normal. And some days, I always say this at the end of every one of my live weekly trainings, some days everybody wants to buy what you’re selling and other days nobody can remember your name. [19:34]
Nancy Calabrese: Right.
Tracy Beavers: And so just don’t, just remember that’s totally normal and get into a community and don’t try to do this by yourself.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, you know, being at the top is very lonely and you need somebody to, you know, you need a coach. And Tracy, you’re a great coach. How can my people find you?
Tracy Beavers: Yeah. You need a coach. For sure. Thank you for that, that’s so kind. So, they are welcome to connect with me: Tracybeavers.com is my website. I have a contact button there where they’re welcome to contact me, reach out by email. I’m easy to find on Facebook, I’m Tracy Lane Beavers. Connect with me as a friend, send me a DM, and then come join my free Facebook group. It’s called Be a Confident Entrepreneur, Get Visible and Grow Your Income. And you know, come join the party. Come join the party in the group. [20:29]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. Now what’s the name of the Facebook group again?
Tracy Beavers: It’s called be a confident entrepreneur, get visible and grow your income.
Nancy Calabrese: Love it. Folks, take advantage of all of Tracy’s expertise. I know that I’m going to join the Facebook group and I think that’s a wonderful gift that you’re offering to entrepreneurs. You just don’t want to go it alone. So, thank you for joining me Tracy and I hope that we’ll do this again in the future. And until we speak again and folks, until I have my next podcast, make it an awesome sales day. [21:15]
