Whether you’re brand new to network marketing, or you’ve been building your business for quite some time, you might sometimes feel a little nervous!

You’re not alone -- it can be intimidating to approach a new customer, ask for a collaboration with a local business, or follow up with people who don’t seem interested in talking to you or continually ignore your calls.

Being nervous doesn’t have to prevent you from growing your business. Here are our top tactics for overcoming nerves and moving ahead toward your goals!

Acknowledge Your Anxiety

For many people, nervousness huddles just beneath the surface. It's that feeling of wobbly legs, a shaking voice, or just an upset stomach. You might go through your whole day plagued by discomfort, just because you’re nervous about a call you’ve got coming up that afternoon! And that's no fun for anyone.

The first and most powerful thing you can do to take power from your anxiety is to recognize it. Giving it a voice will remove at least some of its power. By acknowledging that you’re nervous, you’re telling your body that you realize why it feels this way, and there’s a valid reason for it -- but you’re not giving it permission to make you feel bad about the nerves. You’re not going to feel ashamed or embarrassed about being nervous. After all, everyone gets nervous sometimes! It’s a natural emotion.

Once you’ve noticed when you feel nervous, you can start to apply some techniques to lessen the symptoms and help yourself overcome this limiting factor!

Practice

What are you nervous about?

Usually, it’s something you haven’t done before. Maybe you're nervous about a call to a reluctant prospect, or a presentation in front of a large group of people.

This is where your team comes in! Find a mentor, a teammate, or a friend, and ask for a dress rehearsal. Maybe your friend will act as a critical prospect, so you can practice overcoming objections.

Perhaps you can visit the venue and you can stand on the stage and give your speech, so when you talk in front of 100 people, it’s not the first time you’ve spoken from that platform.

Find what’s making you nervous, then find a way you can practice that event. After all, practice makes perfect!

Play The Worst-Case Scenario Game

While you’re practicing, talk through the worst-case scenarios with your friend or mentor. Then, come up with a response to each one! Here are a few examples:

Your contact starts berating you on the phone and claiming you are harassing her with all of your reachouts. How do you respond? Practice letting her speak (interrupting might make it worse!), then have a gracious response at the ready. Maybe she’s had a horrible day, and you’ve just got the poor luck of calling her at the worst possible time. Your support and graciousness might make a bigger impression than any product pitch could.

You stand onstage and completely forget your lines? Practice taking a few deep breaths, and remind yourself that you’ve got a cheat sheet on the podium, or in the front pocket of your purse. Allow yourself to be human; likely, everyone in the audience has been here too, and if you just give yourself a moment, they’ll be on the edge of their seats wanting to know what’s next!

Figure out what you’re MOST nervous about, then have a plan in place. Just knowing you’re prepared will take your nervousness down a notch or two!

Accept Imperfection

People admire leaders -- but they also appreciate vulnerability. When you make a mistake, when you flub your words, when you can’t remember what to say, you’re just showing your humanity and your willingness to take risks and to grow.

The truth is, your nervousness might be just what an insecure prospect needs to join your team. She’ll see you overcoming barriers and succeeding despite your own challenges - and that might let her see that she could do this too.

Be Proud

One of the biggest challenges for new network marketers is feeling uncertain about their very act of being in business or working in direct sales. If this is what's causing your nerves, you'll need to overcome it quickly! After all, you’re a legitimate business owner and you’re working on a great team for a company you believe in -- so why not show your pride?

You’re offering something valuable to your prospects and customers. (And if you don’t think that’s true, then you might need to reconsider your business, or do more research until you're confident of this fact!)

Stand tall and speak simply about why your company, your product, or your process is the best. Tell your story, share your Why, and take pride in what you do. Your confidence will overcome your nerves!

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