I made thousands of calls and spent hundreds of hours. Weeks and months went by. And then came the light bulb moment….

Do you know what Dr. Ned the endodontist for the Indian Health Service in Penobscot Maine was doing on his day off? He was sewing curtains. And his nephew was applying for medical school at Georgetown. Boy, was he proud! And, sure, he’d be glad to talk to the rep from the company that made the root canal repair system.

And I hung up the phone and sat there. And it dawned on me.  THIS was the heart of the job.

What I thought was a curse of a full year of smile-and-dial was a gift in disguise.  This is what I’d learned: When I found the right person, I’d slow waaay down. I listened to their stories. Once they knew that I cared about them and what they were doing, something nearly magical happened: They told me what they needed.

This is when I discovered that federal sales wasn’t the heart of darkness. It was filled with hearts of gold: the hopes and dreams of the very real federal humans I could help…but only once I got to know them.  I not only met my project goals, but in my most embarrassing and scary business moment, I learned how the specific and repeatable steps I’d taken fit together to make federal wins easier, faster, and — dare I say it? — even genuinely joyful.

When I wrapped the project and caught my breath, I had a choice to make. I could put all that behind me, and say, “thank goodness, I survived. Never doing THAT again.”

Or I could overhaul my business, and dedicate my practice to bringing those secrets and steps to people who are passionate about their federal business.

Five years, seventy clients, and millions of dollars in wins later, are you ready to put this approach to work for you?!