When someone shares a picture with you that you’re in:

-Who, in the picture, do you look at the longest? Probably yourself.

-Who, in the picture, are you the most critical of?

We say things to ourselves like, “Wow…I look terrible in this picture.” “I need a haircut.” “It looks like I haven’t seen the sun in years.” “Ugh…why didn’t someone tell me how terrible that shirt make me look.” and on and on…

It’s not because you’re vain, or have some psychological disorder. We all do it.

One reason is that we don’t typically see ourselves other than in a mirror. All-day long we’re seeing other people – not ourselves. We’re subconsciously taking in visual information from others and applying it to ourselves.

We tend to judge ourselves more harshly than we do others.

Do you know another type of information we rarely hear? It’s our actual own voice.

We hear a version of our own voice every time we speak – which is altered by the vibrations of sound hitting our eardrums coupled with vibrations off of our spinal cord being made by our vocal cords (both of which others don’t receive when they hear OUR voice).

In other words, we sound different to others than we do to ourselves.

There’s a good use of this combination: self-coaching.

Next time you’re engaging with a prospect or customer on the phone, take our your mobile phone and record the audio. Just your own side is fine – you don’t even have to record the customer. Then take a few moments afterward to listen to it.

Use it as an opportunity to understand how others actually hear you. Use the fact that we tend to just ourselves more harshly for good – to coach yourself.

Then answer the questions:

Would you buy from you?

Would you trust you?

Have you bought the book, The Transparency Sale?

– If yes, you’d be doing me an amazing solid if you gave it a review from wherever you bought it. I’ll be your best friend if you do! 😀

– If not, you can find it on Amazon or pretty much anywhere books are sold online. It’s still in a few stores, too. www.transparencysale.com/order

As always, please feel free to reach out if you are looking for a speaker or training workshop for your organization, or just want to nerd out on some of this stuff. Email to tcaponi@salesmelon.com, or you can just reach out or follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter, too.

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