Franziska: Hi and welcome back! Today, I am sitting here with Sue Izzo.

Sue: Hello! Hello, Franziska!

Franziska: I always love having Sue here all the way from the states. Sue runs our Basic Bananas U.S. offices. I just pulled her aside as we were running Clever Bunch sessions next door. You mentioned someone made a comment about feeling that sometimes when they reach out, for example, for a referral campaign or to find strategic partners they get scared because they have a fear of rejection.

Sue: Yes, absolutely. Fear of rejection – we hear this quite often from some of our business owners that are starting off in business. So, you know, we just kind of wanted to talk today three tips about what you can do to lessen your fear of rejection and how to overpower it.

Franziska: Exactly. So what‘s the first thing that you do? Of course, you might connect with that, too. Sometimes, like, “aah I can‘t reach out because I might get rejected.” So what‘s the first thing?

Sue: First and foremost, I think we have to take a look at your expectations. A lot of people are going to worry that they put themselves out there, they‘re expecting everybody to say yes. I think that that is setting you up for a little bit of failure right there. I think if you reach out to 10 people, one person saying yes is really great. I think by measuring our expectations and setting realistic ones is the best way to go when it goes to reaching out to people.

Franziska: Exactly. And secondly also, the second thing on how to deal with that fear of rejection is to know that it‘s usually not about you. If somebody says no or if you feel rejected, it‘s usually because it doesn‘t fit with them, maybe. It doesn‘t fit into their marketing schedule or into what they‘re doing right now. So it‘s usually, it‘s not something that you want to take personally, basically. I think coming in with that, knowing that it‘s nothing personal if somebody says no to you, it‘s way easier to then go and approach more people.

Sue: Oh, absolutely. I mean, it‘s business at the end of the day. This isn‘t a personal attack anybody is taking on you. And I think too, one of my favorite things in how I‘ve operated in business over the past 20 years is whenever someone said no to me, I really just took that as no for now. A no is never a true no to me.

Franziska: And then you went and stalked them a little bit.

Sue: Oh yeah. Like you said, you know, it all depends. Sometimes I had to let it cool down and then go back to them. Sometimes I had to prepare better and go back to them. But really, like you said, I don‘t take it personal, I do think it‘s a no for now and I make sure I have realistic expectations.

Franziska: I love it! So number one, set your expectations and don‘t set them so high that it‘s scary for you to go approach someone. Number two, don‘t take it personally. A no is not something that is personal. It‘s just a no. Number three, a no is a no for now.

Now, if you would love to see Sue Izzo somewhere in the states, if you are state-wise, you can attend Blast-Off marketing. Sue runs the sessions together with Valerie and the website is BasicBananas.com/USA. Or of course, if you are in Australia, it‘s BasicBananas.com/BlastOff. Canada with Erik, it‘s BasicBananas.com/Canada. We would love to see you at one of these sessions.