To all my introverted founder friends, No You Don't Suck At Sales. I want to share my story about my recent solo travel experience and how it helped me become a better communicator and salesperson in general. I had been working on a B2B AI SAAS since last year until June of this year. I was responsible for doing sales and marketing. I have been doing online marketing for a while and have been decent at getting results. So how hard could sales be right? Then I started learning about B2B sales. I read sales books. I learned different advanced sales techniques. I joined sales forums. I learned the right questions to ask. But still, it wasn't helping and we weren't going anywhere. Turns out the problem was not the skills, but my fear of rejection and social anxiety. It was my fear of talking to new people and getting rejected. Last month I took a one-week solo trip to Vietnam. I knew I had to clear my head before pivoting to a new problem space. It was my first time traveling solo and living in a hostel. Surprisingly, when I was there, it felt like I never had social anxiety at all. I was making friends with random strangers, partying, watching football in a bar, and talking to everyone. In fact, I was easily applying behavioral conversational skills I learned like active listing, context-based follow-ups, etc that are important in sales. That's when I realized it's better to master level 1 instead of jumping to level 5 skills when it comes to sales. It's easier to build on top of a confident self rather than dumping skills you wouldn't use. Then beating oneself over lack of progress. And I am not saying solo travel will make you a sales expert overnight. I still hate cold calling. But if you're an introvert like me who has always been shy, it helps build that foundation of confidence. It made me better at: - not getting attached to the outcome or fear of rejection - building confidence in talking to anyone - applying conversational skills like starting a topic, following up, and more So if you're a founder or someone looking to improve sales or communication skills in general, I'd highly recommend taking a solo travel. It's a more enjoyable way to improve basic skills overtaking a 10-hour sales course. I hope this helps someone who's struggling. Shout out to @Kazanjy for writing The Founding Sales and @robfitz for The Mom Test. You guys are saviors of the founder community. #SalesTips #startup #Growth #Marketing #SaaS #Software

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