In this episode, Steph unpacks the "ick": that visceral, gross, out-of-alignment feeling that creeps in when you're selling, and walks through the single shift that turns it around. She breaks down the three specific moments where the ick shows up most (reaching out to your warm network, crafting your "what do you do?" one-liner, and sitting on a sales call wanting the client so bad), the one thing that's always happening when the ick hits, and how moving the spotlight off yourself and onto the person you're serving can completely change the energy of every sales conversation you have. What You'll Hear In This Episode A Q4 update: wrapping up the First Clients Fast Track with 41 new clients (plus mastermind clients), the upcoming first-ever mastermind client event, and what's changing about Year on the Wall 2027 (now a 3-day virtual event, Dec 1-4)The difference between healthy discomfort (the nerves of clicking send on a scary email or pitching yourself for a podcast you'd die to be on) and the ick, which feels grabby, desperate, and out of your integrityThe concept of "desperation breath" she learned from her Groupon sales training days, and why both sides of a desperate conversation can feel it radiatingThe client who ping-ponged between forcing herself to reach out to friends and avoiding it entirely with busy work, and how she admitted, "I can only do that so many times before I just feel like I have to take a shower"Why every time the ick shows up, the same thing has happened: "You've made it about yourself. That's it."The friend who kept trying to come up with a clean, tight one-liner for conferences, only to realize, "The one-liner I'd been craving was never for them. It was for me."The sales call where Steph wanted a dream client so badly she slipped into grabby energy, was the only prospect she didn't close that round, and how reaching out from a place of total service months later landed the clientThe "medicine in your pocket" analogy: "You're walking around with the medicine in your pocket, and there's people dying in the street, and you're like, 'Well, I don't wanna swoop in and make it about me.' Give them the medicine."The dating analogy: sitting at the bar batting your eyelashes hoping they'll come over versus having the courage to make the first move with curiosity and saying, "Hey. I think we should talk."The Ick Test as a gut-check for every sales moment: are you giving cool, service-minded, helper energy, or desperation, "this has to work," me-me-me energy?Why service-based selling will change your life, and the moment clients light up and say, "Oh my God. Yeah, that's right. That's all that's happening is I'm thinking about myself."✨ Year on the Wall 2027 | $47 December 1–4, 2026: now a 3-day virtual event (plus a bonus day). Link coming soon, mark your calendar now. ✨ Sold Out Group Programs Join the waitlist: https://stephcrowder.com/mastermind Connect with Steph Instagram: @heystephcrowder
