Stride Into 2023 With Conviction

As I stride into 2023 with conviction, I want to share exactly what got me here – because I believe every sales leader needs the same clarity going into a new year.

What It Really Means to Stride Into 2023 With Conviction

I’ve been reading so many wonderful New Year’s Eve posts and messages about lessons learned from 2022 and lofty and inspirational aspirations for 2023. I’ve also read those complaints that LinkedIn is a business networking site and not Facebook. Different strokes for different folks, right? Well, those of you who know me, know I always look for a learning in anything – whether it be on the ladder I climb up or the snake I slide down, and to share those learnings with the people in my circles. You are one of those people! And I want to thank you for being here. I love to write and speak and create and stepping into my own business over a decade ago, allowed me to begin that journey. In saying that, I haven’t done as much this year as I would like, nor have I unleashed as much of my creativity as I would like. ✅ Some might say I’m inconsistently consistent or consistently inconsistent and they would be right. ✅ Some might say I have so much more potential than I have shown and they would be right. ✅ Others might say I should play bigger and spread my wings and they would definitely be right! Maybe they are some of my learnings from 2022 😊 One thing is for certain, 2023 will be the year Bernadette does Bernadette. I have shed the ‘what will they think of me?’ mantle from my shoulders and already I feel lighter. And I’m stepping into bigger shoes – really colourful, funky, personality filled shoes as my image shows, and I can’t wait for 2023 which begins in exactly 5 hours, Colorado time. So what are the learnings I’ve learned from 2022 that I can share with you?

Freedom comes from travelling light

Moving halfway around the world at 62 years of age with only 6 suitcases, no job, home or assets was no mean feat (pardon the pun!). There is so much freedom in breaking free from our own rituals, hamster wheel or groundhog day and it is not as scary as you would think. Liberation occurs when you have less, not more. When I walked the Camino in 2019 through Portugal and Spain with a 7kg backpack, no laptop or guide was the beginning of that realisation. Does that mean you have to give everything away. Hell, no! Your travelling light could be doing something you really want to do with zero guilt or giving yourself unadulterated permission to do something you feel others want you to do, instead. 2. Don’t chase people who aren’t into you You will never be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s OK. Not everyone likes tea so hang out with the hot chocolate or coffee or smoothie peeps instead. When we moved to the USA, we lost contact with a couple who were in our inner circles (not even a ‘how ya going?’) and when we moved to the USA, those we thought would welcome us with open arms didn’t while those in our outer circles were the first to do so. And that’s OK. 2023 is the year of the Rabbit and they chase one another to claim dominance. We don’t want to do that! 3. Money is not the be all and end all We wonder why businesses are crying out for staff. Where did these workers go? We know many left the workforce due to Covid, were laid off or retired. Yet there is still a huge gap. Many realised their priority was getting a life versus getting money. Coming to America meant my husband and I took a hit financially – with the AUD against the USD and also having to set up home, find work and begin a new business, yet we are so less stressed than we have ever been. Paring back the layers of living is a worthwhile exercise I would suggest you consider. So, what does

Bernadette doing Bernadette mean? It means I will be launching a brand new book in Q1. It’s written and being beta tested as we speak. ‘Shift and Disrupt’ is as the title suggests – a totally unique and deeper perspective around shifting a seller’s view of the sale and to also discover collaborative ways to disrupt a buyer’s view of the sale by bringing mindset, mental models, more meaning and money to the sales conversation. You will love it! In addition, I will introduce my StorySelling philosophy to Corporate America to help sales leaders, sales teams and business owners build high quality buyer connections, engage in higher value and relevant conversations, and convert opportunities into the highest value revenue streams. We do that through a six-month transformational engagement (The StorySeller Elite Program), free bi-weekly newsletter with how-to’s, buyer success stories and relevant insights, and through our bi-annual Sales Leadership Network breakfast. So, until next time, You do you, too!

That is what it means to stride into 2023 with conviction – not with certainty, but with clarity about who you are choosing to become.

If there is one thing I want you to take from this, it is that you can stride into 2023 with conviction too, starting with a single honest decision today.

I’m Bernadette – founder of the Decision-Led Revenue™ Operating System and The Revenue Leader of Influence™, where I work with CEOs and sales leaders to build a sales team they can rely on to think, make the call, tell the truth about pipeline and own the result.

If any of this resonated – or if you’re staring at a revenue problem that feels like it should have been solved by now – I’d love a conversation.

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And if you’d rather join the discussion, you can also join me on Substack. That’s where the Revenue Leader of Influence community is starting to have these conversations in real time.