Category: Selling Yourself

Bring me to your granny’s birthday party, and I’m sweet as a lemon square. (My favorite.) Bring me to meet the parents, and I’ll bust out the pearls. Bring me anywhere, and you’ll get sweet, demure Ashley. But bring me to a board room? And it’s shark time. If you’re like most people, the mere thought of pitching ideas, speaking in front of a room, or asking for the sale is nauseating. But for some sick, alien-like creatures like myself…it’s

People. They’re a curious breed. But they’re a (really) necessary part of your business. And your success. And your 80th birthday party, because who wants to go to an 80th birthday party with no attendees? Not me. As it turns out, learning how to talk to them (all people, not just the 80 year old crowd) is one of the most important skills anyone–you, me, Superman and anyone public speaking alongside Obama–could ever learn. (If you’re speaking next to Obama,

For those of you who don’t know, in a former life I used to sell advertising for an international print and online magazine. Think pencil skirts, a lot of telephone schmoozing, deal negotiations, contracts, national sales conferences and convincing a lot of fucking people they should give me thousands of dollars. You can imagine the fun I had with this. Particularly the day a prospective client named Lenny insisted we drink Long Island Ice Teas to talk business, and then

A Brazilian spontaneously kissed me on the mouth last night. I’ve decided I like it when this happens. That’s not to say this happens frequently, but, it probably should. After all, back in my college days I may or may not have been nicknamed make out bandit; infamous for swindling hazy, Budweiser-soaked kisses alongside a dingy old refrigerator, shoplifting men’s hearts and holding them ransom, stealthily making my escape before anything could get too…couple-ish. Maybe it lasted a week. Maybe

To anyone and everyone selling something: Pay attention. The other day, I was having a conversation with a copywriting client who is building a business around teaching people how feel all sorts of hot and dynamite by eating raw. I said, “You mean like Crazy Sexy Diet?” And she said, “What’s that?” And I said, “Holy mother of vodka, you’ve never heard of Crazy Sexy Diet?” And she said, “No, Ash.” And I said, “But, really?” And she said, “Stop

As an entrepreneur, sometimes you fall flat on your face. Figuratively–and, apparently, literally–namely when you’re traveling in the South of Chile pretending to be in better shape than you actually are while attempting to jump over pathetically small streams that you really should be able to fucking clear, but somehow, don’t, and manage to fall flat on your face, ripping your pants, embedding annoyingly small rocks in your hands, and making a goddamn fool of yourself. It happens. Behold. Thank

We need to talk. (Did you just cringe a little?) Don’t worry. I’m not breaking up with you. What we need to talk about are your selling strategies. One of them in particular. The one where you kind of just throw something up for sale and hope like hell someone buys it. (We’ve all been there, but you can’t stay there.)– Scenario 1 :: You decide to create a new service that you’re really excited about offering to the world,