EPISODE: 28

Welcome back to Sales as Service—and happy new year. To kick off Season 2, I’m sharing a special episode: my guest appearance on Melissa Snow’s Powerful Women Rising podcast.

In this conversation, we unpack the relationship between marketing and sales—why they’re not the same thing, why marketing alone can leave you waiting, and what it looks like to create opportunity proactively without falling into pushy, transactional tactics.

If you’ve been showing up consistently but still wondering why it’s not translating into revenue, this episode offers a grounded path forward.

In this episode, we cover:

Marketing vs. sales: “building the room” vs. “starting the conversation”
Why referrals are great—but not predictable or scalable
The mindset shift that makes sales feel human (not “salesy”)
The difference between building awareness and actually inviting people to work with you
The 90-day rule for sales results (and why you’re probably giving up too soon)

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE 👇🏻

I feel like so often we're doing things backwards. We get the pictures taken, we build the website, we get the logo, we do all of the things right, and then 'cause we think we need all those things to start selling. What you really need to start selling is to know who you're selling to, what their problem is, how you're gonna solve their problem, and then start having conversations with people.

Everything you're describing, we spend way too much time setting the table. We just need to sit down and start eating. Welcome to Sales is Service. The podcast designed to help you change your mind about sales. Literally, I'm gonna help you change the way you think about selling. I'm Tam Smith, your host sales bestie and pitch partner next door.

You're tired of bros with biceps telling you how to crush a million dollars in your sleep or battling imposter syndrome on your own. You've come to the right place. All you need to do is listen, then take action. No gym membership required. Let's get started.

Quick question for you. How many new business inquiries did you generate in the last 30 days? How many were actually sales qualified, and how many of those converted into paying clients if your results were inconsistent or, hey, maybe you don't even know how to answer that, we need to talk. That's why I created the five minute sales audit.

In just five minutes, you'll walk through a simple set of questions about your sales process, and within three business days, I'll send you a personalized video audit and a detailed PDF checklist. You'll see what's working, where the gaps are, and one low lift action you can take right now to improve lead generation and client acquisition.

It's quick, it's actionable, and it'll give you clarity on what to fix Next. Book your audit today at Studio three 40 nine.com/sales audit. Alright, let's get into today's episode. Welcome back to Sales Is Service and happy New Year if you're listening to this in real time. We are now officially on the other side of the holiday break and stepping into a brand new year as well as a brand new season of the podcast together.

I hope you got a little rest over the holidays, a little reset, a little space to think about what you want this next year to look like both in business and in life. And if we haven't met yet. I'm Tam Smith, sales growth strategist and the founder of Studio 3 49 Sales Marketing, where I help female agency owners and service-based founders fund connect with and convert their RightFit clients using sales systems that are scalable, sustainable, and relationship.

First, the kickoff season two. I'm gonna mix things up just a little bit. Instead of one of our regular in-house interviews, I'm sharing a conversation I had recently as a guest on the Powerful Women Rising Podcast with Melissa Snow. Now, if you don't already know Melissa, let me introduce you. She's a business relationship strategist dedicated to helping women thrive in entrepreneurship and after building and growing, not one but two successful businesses.

She founded The Powerful Women Rising Business Growth Community, where women get strategy, connections, and resources that support real business growth. She's the host of the Powerful Women Rising Podcast, and if you're building a business and you care about doing it in a way that feels true to you, her work is definitely worth your time.

She's been such an influence on me since I found her podcast. I've learned so much from the way she teaches, the way she leads conversations, and frankly, the way she talks about business without making it feel complicated or cringe. So when she invited me to come on her show, it genuinely felt like a compliment, and I knew I wanted to share that interview here with you as part of our season two kickoff.

In our conversation, we talk about the relationship between marketing and sales, how marketing is what builds the room, and sales is what starts the conversation inside it. We talk about why referrals are great, but not always predictable. We talk about how easy it is to overcomplicate business with funnels and fancy infrastructure.

When what you actually need first is clarity on who you serve, what problem you solve, and the confidence to start conversations. We also get into how to do outreach without the pitch slap and what it looks like to approach sales as an active service with intention, not pressure. So if you're coming into 2026 thinking, I've been showing up.

I wanna start converting more of that visibility to real opportunities. You are in the right place. I'm excited for you to listen. I'm also excited for you to connect with Melissa and check out Powerful Women Rising. All right, let's jump into the conversation.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Powerful Women Rising Podcast.

I'm your host, Melissa Snow. It feels like it's been a long time since I talked to you all. It feels like it's been a long time since I recorded a new interview or a new episode or anything. And. There's a lot of reasons for that. Part of it is just because life be lifeing, and also I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes in powerful women rising, restructuring some of the offers, changing some things around in the community, trying to make it more aligned for everyone so that there is something for you if you are at the beginning of your business and you're just getting started and you really need to get some quick wins and some clients and some money right now.

Uh, work on your confidence, make some amazing connections, and then also different things to offer if you are in like the first three to five years of your business, if you're getting some traction, if you're making sales, but it's not consistent, or if you have been in business for a little while and you are making consistent sales, but you are ready for things to be easier.

And faster and simpler, and I hate the word uplevel, but I'm gonna use it anyway. If you are ready to uplevel, level up, uplevel the level up. So anyway, we've been doing a lot of work here, me and my amazing support system, my team, and building out some really great things that I'm excited to share with you in the new year.

In the meantime, you have one more opportunity to join us at one of our virtual speed networking events. The next one is coming up on December 2nd, 2025. If you are listening to this live, and it starts at 11:00 AM Mountain Standard Time. This is the last one of the year. So sad. We just had our November event a couple days ago.

It was amazing. We had over 60 women from all over the world, entrepreneurs online businesses, B2B, B2C. People, brand new in business, people who'd been in business for 30 years, and it's just so fun to see everybody come together and share ideas and opportunities and referrals and advice. And always really fun to see the connections that get sparked at those events and what comes from them.

So if you are not already registered, would love to see you at next month's event. And let's dive into today's episode. So this is a really fun interview that I did with Tam Smith. She is a sales growth strategist, which basically means she helps you figure out who your right fit clients are. Find those people and connect with them in a way that leads to sales.

As the founder of Studio 3 49, she helps creative agencies and service-based businesses create scalable, sustainable sales systems. With over 15 years of sales leadership experience, Tam specializes in turning relationship-based strategies into predictable growth without hard sell tactics. So you can see obviously why I fell in love with her.

She is also the host of the Sales As Service Podcast, where she shares practical sales and marketing insights for entrepreneurs. I am thrilled to just interview with you because I love the conversation that we had about sales versus marketing, how they're similar, how they relate to each other, and the mistakes that most of us are making when it comes to sales and marketing.

What I really love about TAM is not only is she aligned with the powerful women rising ideals of relationships and growing your business through genuine connection and not being a salesy weirdo. But I really love how she came on this podcast and shared some simple tips and skills and strategies that you can start using right away that you can actually put into practice all by yourself today that are going to help you shift the relationship between marketing and sales in your business.

And I have no doubt that if you start to implement some of these things, you're going to see a shift in your business overall. So I would love to hear from you how it goes. I know Tam would too, her contact info in this, in the show notes. So if you implement any of the things that you hear about in this episode, we would love to hear from you.

All right, friends. Without further ado, here is my interview with Tam Smith. Hello Tam. Welcome to the podcast.

Hey, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.

Yeah, so excited for our chat today about sales and marketing and all of the things in between. Before we dive in, tell everybody just a little bit about you and about what you do.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm Tam Smith. I am a sales growth strategist and the founder of Studio 3 49. Sales, marketing and I, I help female founders, female agency owners, um, service-based founders find, connect with and convert RightFit clients through what I like to call scalable sustainable sales systems.

Awesome. And how long have you been doing this work?

I have been doing sales and business development, my feel like my whole career, 15 plus years, my entrepreneurial experience started product of COVID. I would love to believe that it did not take, um, what at that time was a family health crisis independent of COVID, a global pandemic for me to start a business.

But that's how it happened. I'm actually started the business as a, a virtual assistant, um, you know, needed something that wasn't location specific and in my corporate career. My, uh, business card has said everything from administrative assistant all the way up to director of residential sales when I exited the end of 2019.

So started the business as a virtual assistant. The climate we were in during CID businesses that either didn't have or had not been paying attention to their online presence were, you know. Freaking out, you know, what are we gonna do? And with my background largely in, you know, sales, marketing and business development, that's much of the work I was getting.

So, 2022, I rebrand, well, I should say I did a, a formal launch and upgraded from something beyond the, you know, the DIY website. I did over a weekend when I launched the business and, uh, launched to focus just exclusively on digital marketing. And, uh, about. A year ago I told transparency, I was on the fast track to burnout.

I had said yes to everything. And from the outside in, you know, it probably, you know, looked, oh, you know, tam's, you know, running a, you know, successful business on the inside. It felt like I was doing a really poor job at a lot of stuff. And I had started working with a business coach, uh, which I highly recommend to anyone listening 'cause it's really hard to.

Read the label from inside the bottle. In our early engagement working together, she was the one that actually said, you know, unless you're really committed to trying to build out this marketing agency, it sounds like you really wanna be doing something in sales and business development. And I started laughing and I said, well, I can find the business if I could just free myself up to find the business.

And she was the one that said, well, Tam, that's a business. So it really, you know, it's that thing that, you know. We tend to dismiss the thing that comes, I guess, with some ease and flow. You know, I'm still, I guess, kind of working myself out of the idea that success equals suffering.

That

has to be hard to have value.

So, you know, year in, I'm now focused exclusively on the sales and business, but I like creating opportunity, if you will, and helping other people do that too.

That's awesome. This is such a timely conversation. We, I just came from the mastermind call in the powerful Women rising community, and one of the things we were talking about, we were laughing because half the time our members will show up with something that they want help with, and about five to 10 minutes into it, they're like, okay, nevermind.

I'm not even doing that anymore. You know, they'll come like, I needed LinkedIn strategy and we start talking about it and five minutes in they're like. Actually, I don't know why I thought I needed to be on LinkedIn. Nevermind. We were just talking to somebody who she had celebrated at the beginning that she'd created a custom GPT to help people with their SOPs, and it was really cool and blah, blah, blah.

And so what she wanted help with in the mastermind was, I have these three webinar ideas to do this webinar as a lead magnet. Which of these three do you think is the best lead magnet and blah, blah, blah. And finally somebody was like, why aren't you just using your custom GPT as a lead magnet? And she was like.

That's a great question. Like why are, why do we overcomplicate so mm-hmm. Much. Mm-hmm. It's crazy. Okay. So one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on the podcast, I knew that you and I were very aligned with a lot of things. Yeah. And the way that you talk about marketing is you talk about building the room or you talk about sales as like starting the conversation.

And I just love that so much because. That's one of the things that I say to the women in the powerful women rising community a lot too, when they're like, I'm just bad at sales. I'm like, let's talk about every moment in your life that you actually are really good at sales, right? Like right when your husband comes home and you guys are planning on having leftovers for dinner, but you really, really want Chinese like.

That's sales. Right? But really all it is, is you having a conversation with him. And it doesn't have to be manipulative. It doesn't have to be like, I've already figured out what his objections are gonna be to ordering Chinese and I'm ready to overcome his objections. Like mm-hmm. It's not all of this stuff, it's just a conversation.

So. Talk to us a little bit about the relationship between marketing and sales, how they're different and what you mean when you talk about building the room versus starting the conversation.

Yep, absolutely. The question I like to ask to, you know, your audience and to the people I work with, you know, if referral your referrals right up tomorrow, would you still.

You know, have leads coming in, you know, 30 days from now. And referrals are great. Like it is just the, I mean, it means you've got something proven. You know, it's working, you're doing the thing. The challenge with that is it's not. Predictable. You know, you're, you're kind of stuck waiting and it's definitely not scalable.

So when we look at, you know, sales and marketing, it's not an either or, you know, I like to, to think of them when you're working in partnership, marketing helps you get seen and remembered and understood. Sales turns that attention into opportunity and, you know, I'm just like. Share my own story. You know, I've definitely struggled early in my sales career with what I think, you know, as female business owners, female founders.

We, we, we've been, we've been the recipient of some bad sales conversations. You know, we've been on the receiving end of, you know what? The traditional association with sales where it's that, you know, pushy, manipulative, very transactional, very forced, and you know, we, we just don't relate to that. You know, we, we, we don't wanna, we don't want to be the recipient of that, and we definitely, you know, don't want to be the one serving that up to someone that we wanna work with.

And so we don't do it. Early in my career, you know, I was coming, my mindset around the term sales was that's what I associated with. And I thought I was a quote unquote bad salesperson because I didn't relate to that. That's not, I was very focused on how can I serve and solve, and I, you know, it took, someone actually gave me the book and I highly recommend.

It's a great read, which really, yeah, I felt validated. I felt seen, but it's go givers sell more. And it was the, I don't know if you've, if you've read it or familiar with it, but great read and I felt, like I said, I read it. And I just wanted to like, like shout from the rooftops. I, someone sees me, I feel heard because it, at the end of the day, we're the mindset you approach it with.

It changes everything. And it's like, how can I serve and solve? And if you've got, you know, a service or a solution that can help someone achieve a goal or solve a problem, you know, I'm of the opinion that, you know, we have a responsibility to share that. And we're not trying to sell anything, you know, we're simply trying to, you know, educate that individual on making the best decision for them.

So, um, I heard it said that we're not salespeople. We're the, I think it's the decision makers, decision maker, helpers, if you will. You know, we're just helping someone make a decision. But a very long answer to your question, I feel like we get stuck in the either or marketing. We're very, you know, comfortable with posting, you know, the being.

Being visible and then it stops. And, you know, the sales end of it were resistant because we don't wanna be perceived as a, you know, as a, a gross sleazy salesperson, but they really intended to work together. And I have, having worked on both sides of it, you know, having worked deeply on the marketing side of it, I knew how valuable having that consistent.

Did visible presence is in the, uh, climate that we're in today. I knew how valuable that was, but it really wasn't until I got now, within this last year, you know, focused on the sales end of things like how important it is to have both to work together. Marketing, you're left waiting, you know, for that inbound inquiry, which if you do it well, you're gonna get, but I'm a huge advocate of, you know, being able to, while you're waiting.

Be able to proactively initiate and start those conversations so you can create your own opportunity. And it's a, it's a whole kind of environment, ecosystem, if you will, that it's really intended to support each other.

Yeah.

Again, very long answer to your question, but,

well, it was a very long question, so it's okay.

I love the distinction you're making though, between marketing and sales because. I think we think of them. I, I hear people talk a lot about them together, right? I do marketing and sales. I do sales and marketing. Sales and marketing, marketing and sales. And there are people who, you know, specialize in helping people with one or the other.

But I think so often for like the average business owner, marketing and sales are the same thing, right? And so. What I see a lot in the women that I work with is they're all over the marketing, right? They're posting on social media, they're emailing their list, they're providing value, they're going to networking events and connecting with people, and they're doing all of this stuff to increase their visibility, to bring people into their audience.

They're doing great, but then they're like, why? Why am I not making any money? Right, right. And I think it's because they're missing that distinction between marketing and sales. They think because they are marketing, the sales should be coming automatically. Right. So for those people who are listening to this that are like, yes, that's a hundred percent what I'm doing, how do you suggest they start bringing more sales in?

I wish I had the silver bullet. And the silver bullet is, there's no silver bullet. It's just a practice. It is just a daily discipline and practice and simply building that into your daily, weekly routine. And it, I'll let me back up and say, I kind of think of it in three phases. A lot of the, the women that I work with, they're coming to me at kind of one of two inflection points.

You know, they've, again, they've, they've built a solid business based on a referral, but one of two things has happened. They've had a, you know, a large client has moved off and they, they don't have anything in place to fill that. Or they're at that stage where, hey, you know, they're ready to, to grow and scale and move to that next level.

And again, there's no process. So. Again, I wish that could, there was something I could say that, you know, you insert this in and it's gonna be like, you know, a double digit increase overnight. But it really is just the mic daily micro actions that you take to move that needle. But I set that up to say a lot of us, when we've started our businesses, we've, and I, you know, to a certain degree, early stage, you have to, we've said yes to everything.

To be able to, you know, proactively initiate and start a conversation. I'm not, you know, I know everybody gets really nervous when they hear the, the idea of, of someone advocating they need to niche down or, or get focused. But for the purposes of initiating and starting conversation and being able to proactively initiate business growth for that messaging, think of that, that one client or that one project.

That you did that if, and I'm not saying this is all you're ever gonna do for the rest of your business, but if that's all you did, who is that? You know, what is that work? And get really, really focused on the profile of who that that client is and the problem you're solving that you can go start mo more of those same conversations.

And then once you've done that, it really is just, there's so many tools. Pick your, where, where's the sandbox? Where are they playing? And then it, it really goes like you're, the way you advocate, you know, business building with, you know, it's just making connections and starting conversations and building relationship to create opportunity.

And that doesn't happen overnight. It's just a daily micro action. So, you know, once you've got that, you know, profile of that, you know, again, that one person that you wanna start a conversation with, find out where are they playing, and get in the room and then just be able to say, like, I, I heard. This is not original quote, but I'm gonna steal it that, you know, sales really is like half of the room is waiting for the other room to say hi.

Just be the first to say hello.

Yes.

In a way that feels natural and comfortable to you. So yeah, once you've kind of validated that audience pro or that that client profile, you know, you're able to work that into your messaging and the marketing things that you're using to support your business. And it hopefully that will drive some more of those inbound conversations.

But in the meantime, being able to. Day on the daily, just practically initiate those conversations. I, I practice what I call like a, a three, two, two method, if you will. And this is what I've found when I talk about, you know, sustainable practice, wherever your chosen platform is, wherever your client is, is living and playing a prospective client is living and playing.

That could be, you know, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever that platform is. It's like where can you contribute to the conversation and drop three comments on your ideal clients. Content that they're posting and just engage in the conversation. And then two proactive outreach messages, one to someone new that you wanna start a relationship with, and then someone else that's already in your network that could be a past client.

A referral partner, a potential collaborator that you're just staying visible, but proactively, again, building that relationship and nurturing and I, that's where mindset comes into, because a lot of people, well, I'll, I'll even use again myself as an example. Early in my sales career, I can remember. My first like, full commission sales job, and I was fortunate to be sitting between the two of the highest performing sales women in the company and white.

I was just, you know, white knuckling. How am I gonna make, you know, make my forecast this month? And the ones Nancy, Judy sitting next to me, shout out to Nancy, Judy. She said, Tam, you know, you got, you gotta let go of the focus on the number. Because when you get focused on the number, you push it further away.

When you focus on the client in front of you and the this, you're doing all the right things. Plan to work, work the plan and the numbers will come. So I think that, again, that mindset, you start those conversations, don't go into it with that. Trying to close a deal, you know, one of, sure, it may end up being a client.

Or it could be a great referral partner, collaborator, or just like a really smart conversation that points you to the next right thing to do in your business to grow.

Yeah. I think, again, we try to overcomplicate things, right? And so we think if I'm gonna make sales, if I'm gonna turn my marketing into sales, then I need this big complicated funnel.

I need. Some sort of, we were just talking about trip wires on the mastermind and everybody was like, where did that phrase even come from? I'm like, I don't know. Just like, you know when somebody gets your free thing and you're like, oh, if you love my free thing, you could also add this thing for $7. You know?

Right. Like, so I need a freebie and then I need a trip wire, and then I need an email sequence to funnel those people through. And then after that, I need them to go here and do this. And I can't do that unless I have the sales page set up. And when I set up my sales page, I'm gonna need somewhere for them to go to do this, this, and this.

And we wait until we have all of those 50 million things, then we can start selling. Mm-hmm. Right. But actually, and this is one of the reasons I started this business, is to get people to realize, like, I feel like so often we're doing things backwards. Yeah. We build the, we get the pictures taken, we build the website, we get the logo, we do all of the things right.

And then 'cause we think we need all those things to start selling. What you really need to start selling is to know who you're selling to. What their problem is, how you're gonna solve their problem, and then start having conversations with people.

Everything you're describing, we spend way too much time setting the table.

We just need to sit down and start eating.

Yes, yes. And once you have those conversations, right, once you're starting to do those things, that's when you're gonna start bringing money in. And then you can use that money to. To put the frosting on the cake, right? Like we wanna get the frosting first and learn how to make, I, I have the weirdest metaphor, so we're just gonna go with it.

We want the frosting first, and we wanna learn how to make the like icing flowers and all of the fancy icing things, right? And we do all those and then we're like, well, shit, I don't have a cake. To put this on, and we like to do that because that's the sexy part, right? Like that's the part that everybody sees that's like, oh, look at her.

She's like a real business woman. She's her. She's got icing. She knows how to make flowers. She knows how to do all these things, and that makes our imposter syndrome feel good. It makes us feel good because now everybody else is looking at us and like, oh, she's legit. She knows how to make frosting flowers.

But then we realize like those frosting flowers are not on a cake. We don't even have a cake. So we start backwards. We do the non-sexy part of baking a cake, and then at least we have something to live off of while we learn how to make frosting flour.

I, I like that. Statistically speaking, it takes about 90 days, like what you are doing now is gonna show up 90 days from now.

So don't delay. Like if you're listening to this and there's like one, one action item you could take from this is identify, you know, two people. Today or tomorrow, you know, one new connection that, you know, just someone you admire that's doing something you know, interesting. That is, you know, you've gotten some benefit out of, in, in your business that you just wanna, what is it?

The, you're the sum of the, the six people you, you surround yourself with. So, you know, expanding your network to someone you want to know, and then look at your existing network, you know, like I said, past client that you haven't reached out to in a while. You know, referral partner collaborator, or just, you know, a connection that's already in your network just to reach out and get in touch with.

This, what you are doing today is going to show up 90 days from now. So every day you delay it just pushes that next. That next client out, you know, about 90 days further.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. And I think too, you know, we talk a lot about, on this podcast about how to not be a salesy weirdo. Mm-hmm.

And I think sometimes people think if I'm reaching out to someone new or I'm reaching out to somebody I haven't had a conversation with in a while, mm-hmm. I'm gonna come across as a salesy weirdo. And I think the biggest. Distinguisher of that is like, what is your intention in reaching out to them, right?

Because if I've never met you before, or I just like met you at this one networking event, and I'm like, Hey, Tam.

Mm-hmm.

Great to see you at this networking event. I would love to offer you a 30 minute website audit and give you my thoughts on your website. Right. Just, I just wanna do this, you know, just to connect with you and just to be nice and it'd be really great.

Right. Okay. Salesy weirdo. Mm-hmm. Because unless you were born yesterday, we know you're not just doing a website audit out of the goodness of your heart. Right? Like, thank you. And also, no, and if you're reaching out to somebody, like a former client or something like that, you're not reaching out to them to say like, Hey, you haven't given me any money in the last six months.

Are you interested in giving me some money now? Right.

I call that the both of those, that's the pitch slap, which that's, I'm on a mission to end that. That's exactly what you don't wanna do.

So how do we want to start those conversations?

It takes. I mean 30 seconds. I mean, with their tools and resources that we have at our disposal today to, you know, I mean, you look at someone's social feed, you know, Google search to see if they have any news, press announcements, you know, people just wanna feel seen and supported and know that they matter and they're valuable and it's about you know, them and not you.

And from a genuine way, like you can always. Extend, you know, recognition to someone, you know, for something they've accomplished in their business. You can always say thank you. You can always offer a valuable resource that that can support them in their business in the next move. That, you know, may or may not include you, but you're so right.

It's the mindset and the intention, and to go at it from a place of genuinely goes back to that. You know, I, my whole mantra is sales is an act of service. It's about what you give, not what you get, and when you serve well, the ROI. Always follows. And I have yet to find that not to be true. Yeah. So from the intention of it's like, you know, you give a gift, it's not with the expectation you're gonna get, get anything back, just a genuine intention to support and serve and, and be of, be of value.

And when you do that, it, it just, it comes back. I have repeating myself, but I have yet to see that not come back on itself. And I'll point out, it may not to get all woo, but you know, it may not be from that. Person or individual, but it'll be something outta left field that you didn't even expect. But it's the momentum, you know, that you put out there, that it comes back to you in more ways than you can imagine.

Yeah, I totally agree.

Yeah.

Okay, so we need to wrap up pretty soon. Yeah. I, this is, I mean, sales and marketing is such a huge topic. We could go on. Forever. Yeah. But this is my last question for you. If somebody is listening to this and they're like, this all sounds great. Um, but I hate sales. I'm bad at marketing, but also I'm not a billionaire, so I won't be hiring someone else to do my sales marketing.

Mm-hmm. Where can they start today? Like is there a mindset shift? Is there, like you mentioned, you know, reaching out to a couple different people and just starting conversations. What do you recommend for the people who are listening, who are feeling like that?

I, I hear you. You, I've been, you and, and depending on the day, I'm SI still am you, I'm this kind of my hot take.

I don't believe that there is any, there's a such a thing as a sales expert. There are, you know, there's a lot of people out there that have. Lots and lots of practice. They're just more practice than you. And, and also, you know, we're overwhelmed at the messaging that we have to do every, be everywhere and do everything.

Yes, all of those things work. But what's gonna is the thing that you can show up and do. Consistently. So start small. You know, pick one, one thing that feels true to you, that in your, your business and the client that you are serving. And start there. And I can't say that there's not gonna be, um, you know, like starting anything new.

You know, I hate to use, you know, an exercise metaphor. Any, anything new you've taken on, there's always gonna be some level of. Discomfort and, and I, I feel it, you know, any, any in my own business, you know, I mean, I still like any, I've had, you know, career sales and I still get anxiety before sales conversations, but it's just with practice and repetition, it does get easier.

So I'd say just start small and pick one thing and what that you can do repeatedly and pour gas on it.

Love that. Okay, so people are listening, they're loving you 'cause why wouldn't they? They wanna know more about what you do, how you might be able to help them, whatever you got going on. What are some good ways for them to connect with you?

Absolutely. You can find me, uh, LinkedIn. And the Sales of Service podcast is where I'm, I'm hanging out most of the time. Uh, you'd also find me on my website, studio three 40 nine.com. And I invite, again, talking about daily practices that can, you know, kind of give you a starting point and give you some, you know, daily practices so you can implement in your own business.

Go to Studio three 40 nine.com/freebies and download the VIP Power Hour and that'll give you some practical, like daily disciplines that you can start to work in, uh, and proactively generate. More leads and business opportunities for your business.

Awesome. That's brilliant. Okay. I will put the links for all of those in the show notes so people can click on those and connect with you.

Thank you so much for being a guest. It was great chatting with you. I knew we were gonna love each other and have a million things to talk about, and we did.

Thank you so much for the invitation. Like I told you, I, I, I'm a fan girl and I've gotten so much, you know, out of your, you know, podcasting content and, uh, to be able to be a guest on here, it's a compliment and I'm glad to be here.

Awesome. Thank you. I'm so glad to have you.

So good. Melissa, thank you again for the invitation and for the way you lead these conversations. Being a guest on Powerful Women Rising was genuinely a highlight for me, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share it with your audience. And now with mine.

And if you're not already listening to Melissa's podcast, definitely go check it out. She consistently shares smart, practical insights for women building businesses. Now, before you go, here's your sales and service challenge for this episode, and it's also a preview of what we're leaning into for season two.

Because this season, my focus is proactive outreach as a discipline, a daily practice. It's like going to the gym. Some days you're into it, some days you're not. But if you show up consistently, you get results. So here's what I want you to try. Run the 3, 2, 2 method every day for a month. That's three thoughtful comments on posts from people you genuinely wanna build relationship with.

Two outbound messages to new connections. No pitch. Just a real reason for reaching out. And two touch points to your existing network. That could be a past client collaborator or referral partner. Track it. Don't overthink it and watch what happens. I promise you, if you just did that exercise every day for a month, everything else would take care of itself, and I'm genuinely excited for the conversations we have planned for season two.

If there's a topic you want me to cover, if. Messaging, outreach, referrals, sales confidence, follow up, lead gen, any of it. Send me a message and tell me what you're working through. I read every single one of them, and they help shape what we create here. All right. That's it for today. Thanks for being here.

And remember, sales is an act of service. It's about what you give, not what you get, and when you serve well, the ROI always follows. I'll see you right back here next week.

You've just listened to the Sales As Service

Podcast, the podcast to help you shift your mindset around selling. If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe and share it with a friend, because we're all about more sales. Awesome and less sales awkward. See you next episode.

✦ YOUR SALES AS SERVICE CHALLENGE

The 3–2–2 Method (30-Day Outreach Practice)

For the next 30 days, build proactive outreach into your day using this simple rhythm:

3 thoughtful comments on posts from people you genuinely want to build a relationship with
(Not “Great post!”—add something real.)
2 outbound messages to new connections
(No pitch. Lead with a real reason you’re reaching out.)
2 touch points to your existing network
(Past clients, collaborators, referral partners—stay visible and supportive.)

Track it. Don’t overthink it. Watch what happens.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Learn more about Powerful Women Rising
Listen to the Powerful Women Rising Podcast
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram
Join the Sales as Service LIVE Office Hours – get your invite for the next session
LinkedIn Lead Generator – daily actions that lead to real conversations
Book your free strategy call and learn how to consistently book 3–5 sales-qualified meetings each week

SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more creative agencies and service pros who need these insights. Thanks for tuning in to Sales as Service—see you next week!