What Is the Audience Yelling at You to Do?

Imagine your life is a movie.

There's a theater full of people watching your story unfold, right up to this exact moment. The popcorn's gone. Nobody's checking their phone. They're locked in.

And there's a scene coming. You know what you're supposed to do. The audience knows what you're supposed to do. It's so obvious to everyone watching that they can't sit still. People are half out of their seats. Someone in the back is yelling at the screen.

You know what they're yelling, don't you?

It's not a mystery to them. From where they're sitting, it's the easiest call in the world. Why is this guy/gal still just standing there?

But you're not in the audience. You're in the movie. You're so close to your own story, you can't see the forest for the trees. Something's in the way. Not logic. You already know the logic. It's the feeling. The discomfort. The fear of what happens if you actually do the thing.

So the scene doesn't happen. It hasn't happened, and at this rate it doesn't seem like it will ever happen.

The rest of the movie hasn't been written yet. Nobody's forcing your hand. There's no script sitting on a shelf somewhere that says how this goes. You're the one writing it. Every day you don't take the step, you're the one writing, "and then he did nothing" into the next scene. Quite frankly, I'm getting bored. If you don't take action soon, I'm going to walk out of this theater and see what else is playing.

That's the whole problem with avoiding the next step. Is it avoiding a sales conversation? Because it was never really about sales. You don't have a sales problem. You have a silence problem.

Is it about putting yourself out there to be judged by others? Your loved ones? Because it's not really about that. They will love you whether you win or lose. But they DO want to see you try.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." Maya Angelou

Okay. So what do you do with that?

You don't need to become someone else, someone louder, someone who "just goes for it." You need one small, honest move. Reach out to the one person you've been putting off. Sit down unrehearsed and hit the record button. Type out that next post. That's the whole scene.

The theater full of people is not waiting to judge you if it goes badly. They're not even really watching for the outcome. They're waiting for you to take the step. That's the moment they stand up. That's the moment they clap. Because you finally stopped standing frozen in the middle of your own story.

So who is it? What is it? Take that step.

Stop reading this and go write the next scene.

This article first appeared in my LinkedIn newsletter, Approachable Entrepreneurship.

Not sure what to say once you take the step?

That's exactly what How to Sell When You Hate to Sell is for. The N.I.C.E. method gives you a way into the conversation you've been putting off, one honest question at a time, no script required.

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Keep reading: Why Do You Really Fear Selling?