There’s a particular quirk (defect?) of magicians: their primary mode of communication is performing magic.
It’s the “if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” situation, but for them it’s “pick a card.”
Doing tricks is the only way they’ve ever gotten people to like them, to talk with them, to get people interested in hanging out; as the dancing monkey.
And it’s exhausting.
On the other side there are magician friends of mine that I’ve known for 15+ years and we’ve never done a single routine for each other.
We talk about magic, sure, but we don’t ‘perform’ for each other.
We also talk about family, hobbies, the news, ideas, outer space, and anything else we find interesting (which is most of the universe).
And that brings me to sales.
Should you always be selling?
I have two answers.
If it’s the pushy kind of “Look at me! Look at me! I’m going to close you!” kind of selling?
Then, absolutely not.
In fact, I’d prefer you never do it at all. Please find another line of work.
On the other side, if your idea of selling (like mine is) is to help people find effective, efficient, and profitable solutions to their problems, then I think you should be selling every single moment of every single day.
If you are genuinely invested in helping people solve problems & be more successful, then I never want you to turn that off.
That’s why the best sales people don’t feel “salesy.” They feel like they’re a great friend who’s looking out for you, and helps keep you in the loop on stuff that might be of benefit to you.
And who wouldn’t want a trusted advisor / friend like that?
How about you, specifically? Should you always be selling?
I hope so.
Best thoughts,
~Jonathan