Advice on starting a side hustle on sales with a hearing impairment.

[dauntless]

Hello, Fastlaners!

I have posted in the forums before and suddenly became a lurker...again.

I won't lie, having been born deaf and living with hearing loss is a bitch. Mainly because interpersonal relationships and networking is much harder when I've struggled with clear communication skills for most of my life.
I'm almost 36 years old (my birthday is January 22). Fortunately, I am a recipient of a cochlear implant, an amazing technology that has given some of my life back, and with it...confidence to improve my communication skills. But that was in 2013, and it took me 10 good years for my brain to adapt to spoken clarity -- Neuroplasticity is pretty damn cool.

The problem? I started a virtual reality business before the pandemic which graciously failed. And now, I am able to pay the bills with an e-commerce business that I started with my fiance during the pandemic. BUT, the money is not enough thanks to inflation (clients are spending much less than before), and I find myself having to get out there and find something better.

What's my current plan? I want to start getting some sales experience in tech, SaaS, real estate, or medical tech.

What I am capable of doing right now? website design, medical technology product visualizations, architectural visualizations in 3-D and virtual reality, enterprise applications for virtual reality and augmented reality, product photography and video production for e-commerce, and wholesale sourcing.

What's holding me back? All of these skills take way too long to have a solid proof of concept, and I kind of want to start with something now. Oh, and my hard drive with most of my digital work f*cking crashed.

Why the rush though? You may be thinking that I could continue with the e-commerce business while I work on the side gig. Yes, this is a solid plan. But, unfortunately, I am currently battling with recovering my mother's widowed pension in Mexico, and she doesn't have any savings and suffers from seizures, thus, mental illness including depression and anxiety. And, I am her only child, and in order to help sustain her life, I need to make an additional $900 per month for her medication and basic needs.

What's the end goal? I'd love to learn new sales skills, grow my network, meet people, improve my confidence, and be able to learn how to get new leads in several industries.

I am based in NYC, and I'd love to hear any tips or advice on how to start being involved in sales whether it is B2B, B2C, sales engineering, etc...and anything that can be done over Zoom or in person would work best for me. I am not sure about cold calling due to obvious reasons. And, if anyone from NYC would like to be part of my network, please let me know, I'd love to get to meet you.

Thanks!

 

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[Andy Black]

Hello, Fastlaners!

I have posted in the forums before and suddenly became a lurker...again.

I won't lie, having been born deaf and living with hearing loss is a bitch. Mainly because interpersonal relationships and networking is much harder when I've struggled with clear communication skills for most of my life.
I'm almost 36 years old (my birthday is January 22). Fortunately, I am a recipient of a cochlear implant, an amazing technology that has given some of my life back, and with it...confidence to improve my communication skills. But that was in 2013, and it took me 10 good years for my brain to adapt to spoken clarity -- Neuroplasticity is pretty damn cool.

The problem? I started a virtual reality business before the pandemic which graciously failed. And now, I am able to pay the bills with an e-commerce business that I started with my fiance during the pandemic. BUT, the money is not enough thanks to inflation (clients are spending much less than before), and I find myself having to get out there and find something better.

What's my current plan? I want to start getting some sales experience in tech, SaaS, real estate, or medical tech.

What I am capable of doing right now? website design, medical technology product visualizations, architectural visualizations in 3-D and virtual reality, enterprise applications for virtual reality and augmented reality, product photography and video production for e-commerce, and wholesale sourcing.

What's holding me back? All of these skills take way too long to have a solid proof of concept, and I kind of want to start with something now. Oh, and my hard drive with most of my digital work f*cking crashed.

Why the rush though? You may be thinking that I could continue with the e-commerce business while I work on the side gig. Yes, this is a solid plan. But, unfortunately, I am currently battling with recovering my mother's widowed pension in Mexico, and she doesn't have any savings and suffers from seizures, thus, mental illness including depression and anxiety. And, I am her only child, and in order to help sustain her life, I need to make an additional $900 per month for her medication and basic needs.

What's the end goal? I'd love to learn new sales skills, grow my network, meet people, improve my confidence, and be able to learn how to get new leads in several industries.

I am based in NYC, and I'd love to hear any tips or advice on how to start being involved in sales whether it is B2B, B2C, sales engineering, etc...and anything that can be done over Zoom or in person would work best for me. I am not sure about cold calling due to obvious reasons. And, if anyone from NYC would like to be part of my network, please let me know, I'd love to get to meet you.

Thanks!

Sorry to hear about the issue with your mum's pension. Good for you helping out.

You have skills, and a lot of communication is done via written word now-a-days. Could you pick up a client or few for $xxx/mth each?

Why make it a goal to "learn sales" when you can make it a goal to *get sales* for yourself?


This might help:

HOT! - When your back's against the wall...

When your back's against the wall... Someone gave me this advice a few years ago and it's got me out of a bind quite a few times since. On one occasion I was 2 days away from our mortgage payment and looking at an empty warchest. This advice helped. The advice? Start sending hand crafted...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Carlitos]

How you doing D, I know exactly how you feel, I am Actually hard of hearing and after many years of struggling I finally have something going for myself. You can follow my thread here. My Current Biz

I haven‘t done a proper intro here, but here’s a small recap of my life. Born in Mexico Guerrero, grew up in The Bronx my entire childhood, we moved to Atlanta in 01, and 2015 went back to NYC, 2018 back to Atlanta , mid 2020 left to Texas. I now live in Fort Worth where I have my shop business.

I wasn’t born hard of hearing, but in third grade I started loosing my hearing from one ear and then both eventually. I currently use 2 BTE hearing aids, Behind The Ear, for those who don’t know. I love how far technology has come, I have 2 Starkeys that are amazing. Bluetooth capabilities, so I’m able to make calls and interact with clients in person as well. This pair was around 8K.

There was a time I couldn’t afford good hearing aids, and was having a lot of difficulties, my motivation and confidence was on the floor. Once I got back up slowly, I realized I’m an incredible salesman, and love sales.

I personally believe the digital world has a lot to offer still. I can’t tell you now how much I love my CRM that is implemented with my website. I have closed deals over SMS, emails, chat messages and of course calls.

Now I’m extremely happy to hear that AI can be implemented with my CRM, we are currently working on that. E-commerce is something I’m currently struggling in getting of the ground, because I do have a solid product that has been proven to work. I’m also struggling with learning and getting to run an ad campaign for my main business which is a service provider.

Im also going to look for other alternatives to reinvest my current profits in to other businesses, don’t want to keep all my eggs in one basket. Knowing how terrible it was in the past I’m afraid to go back to that position which is why I’m a workaholic and always looking to work smarter.

With everything you know, I’m certain you can start a business without interacting with clients vocally.

Now with my first kid on the way which I’m excited for, I’m looking to become more efficient, organized and make time to spend with my family.

 

[dauntless]

Sorry to hear about the issue with your mum's pension. Good for you helping out.

You have skills, and a lot of communication is done via written word now-a-days. Could you pick up a client or few for $xxx/mth each?

Why make it a goal to "learn sales" when you can make it a goal to *get sales* for yourself?


This might help:

HOT! - When your back's against the wall...

When your back's against the wall... Someone gave me this advice a few years ago and it's got me out of a bind quite a few times since. On one occasion I was 2 days away from our mortgage payment and looking at an empty warchest. This advice helped. The advice? Start sending hand crafted...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Thank you for taking the time to reply and linking me to your other post. I have already messaged people I know and offered them my services.

For context, I'm originally from Mexico City and I've lived in Dallas, Texas for 12 years before moving to NYC. Most of my network is largely from Mexico, and it is known that after college, friendships are harder to get and attain over time, so it's been tricky to grow a circle of friends in the US as most of them have also moved on with their lives, gotten married, have kids, relocated due to COVID, etc...

So, I did reach out to most of my Mexican acquaintances with sales and website development services, considering they were those who needed an upgrade the most. However, pricing discrepancies are an issue, and what I need to value my work at...becomes expensive for them, so this is somewhat of a problem since I have to lower the value of my time and effort just to be able to help them. I'm still considering this a plan B in case I can find a strategy for them to help me bring in more work from their connections.

I also considered using my disability and success story to contact Cochlear Americas--the NA division of Cochlear, the company that designed and developed my cochlear implant model. I contacted three different people (all talent acquisition staff) via LinkedIn without any success, not even a reply...bummer.

My current objective is to grow my network in North America. I did consider rebuilding my portfolio with new work, using social media to drive organic traffic, and possibly cold-emailing or cold-calling (doubt that'll work great for me) but at least to have my work speak for itself.

I'm not quite sure why am I being somewhat unsuccessful in this aspect, my guess is that the current workforce (especially in tech and sales) is at a chokehold and maybe there's a hiring freeze.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[dauntless]

How you doing D, I know exactly how you feel, I am Actually hard of hearing and after many years of struggling I finally have something going for myself. You can follow my thread here. My Current Biz

I haven‘t done a proper intro here, but here’s a small recap of my life. Born in Mexico Guerrero, grew up in The Bronx my entire childhood, we moved to Atlanta in 01, and 2015 went back to NYC, 2018 back to Atlanta , mid 2020 left to Texas. I now live in Fort Worth where I have my shop business.

I wasn’t born hard of hearing, but in third grade I started loosing my hearing from one ear and then both eventually. I currently use 2 BTE hearing aids, Behind The Ear, for those who don’t know. I love how far technology has come, I have 2 Starkeys that are amazing. Bluetooth capabilities, so I’m able to make calls and interact with clients in person as well. This pair was around 8K.

There was a time I couldn’t afford good hearing aids, and was having a lot of difficulties, my motivation and confidence was on the floor. Once I got back up slowly, I realized I’m an incredible salesman, and love sales.

I personally believe the digital world has a lot to offer still. I can’t tell you now how much I love my CRM that is implemented with my website. I have closed deals over SMS, emails, chat messages and of course calls.

Now I’m extremely happy to hear that AI can be implemented with my CRM, we are currently working on that. E-commerce is something I’m currently struggling in getting of the ground, because I do have a solid product that has been proven to work. I’m also struggling with learning and getting to run an ad campaign for my main business which is a service provider.

Im also going to look for other alternatives to reinvest my current profits in to other businesses, don’t want to keep all my eggs in one basket. Knowing how terrible it was in the past I’m afraid to go back to that position which is why I’m a workaholic and always looking to work smarter.

With everything you know, I’m certain you can start a business without interacting with clients vocally.

Now with my first kid on the way which I’m excited for, I’m looking to become more efficient, organized and make time to spend with my family.

Hey Carlitos,

We have a lot in common. I spent most of my 20's living in Dallas, Texas. And during COVID, I also worked in mobile car washing/detailing, lol. I'm a software engineer focusing on virtual reality and as you can imagine, no one dared to share a headset with other people at the time. But, I'm also into cars and I enjoy making cars look sleek.

I took my time to read your Execution thread from start to finish, and it's been a great read to see how you've progressed.
I do agree with the other commenters in your thread, word of mouth is king in your line of work, and even more if you employ social media marketing.
There's a guy here in Brooklyn who started his detailing shop during the pandemic, and thanks to social media, he's now booking high-end brands on the daily.

How were you handling the calls before your current girl came along? was all that automated via Sideline? did you actually call your clients back yourself? How's your hearing? I ask because am severe/profound deaf from birth and my biggest struggle is with understanding various accents.

I'll be heading over to your execution thread to contribute to your e-commerce progress.

 

[Andy Black]

Thank you for taking the time to reply and linking me to your other post. I have already messaged people I know and offered them my services.

For context, I'm originally from Mexico City and I've lived in Dallas, Texas for 12 years before moving to NYC. Most of my network is largely from Mexico, and it is known that after college, friendships are harder to get and attain over time, so it's been tricky to grow a circle of friends in the US as most of them have also moved on with their lives, gotten married, have kids, relocated due to COVID, etc...

So, I did reach out to most of my Mexican acquaintances with sales and website development services, considering they were those who needed an upgrade the most. However, pricing discrepancies are an issue, and what I need to value my work at...becomes expensive for them, so this is somewhat of a problem since I have to lower the value of my time and effort just to be able to help them. I'm still considering this a plan B in case I can find a strategy for them to help me bring in more work from their connections.

I also considered using my disability and success story to contact Cochlear Americas--the NA division of Cochlear, the company that designed and developed my cochlear implant model. I contacted three different people (all talent acquisition staff) via LinkedIn without any success, not even a reply...bummer.

My current objective is to grow my network in North America. I did consider rebuilding my portfolio with new work, using social media to drive organic traffic, and possibly cold-emailing or cold-calling (doubt that'll work great for me) but at least to have my work speak for itself.

I'm not quite sure why am I being somewhat unsuccessful in this aspect, my guess is that the current workforce (especially in tech and sales) is at a chokehold and maybe there's a hiring freeze.

Read/watch that again. You don't ask if they need help. You ask if they know anyone who needs help.

This thread might help too:

GOLD! - HOT! - MARKETING - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

I was asked this a while ago: If you were to start your business from scratch, how would you approach prospecting? Given that you don't cold call. And you don't know many people in the business world to "spend your money on diesel and coffee" with. And you've already reached out to your friends...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[Carlitos]

Hey Carlitos,

We have a lot in common. I spent most of my 20's living in Dallas, Texas. And during COVID, I also worked in mobile car washing/detailing, lol. I'm a software engineer focusing on virtual reality and as you can imagine, no one dared to share a headset with other people at the time. But, I'm also into cars and I enjoy making cars look sleek.

I took my time to read your Execution thread from start to finish, and it's been a great read to see how you've progressed.
I do agree with the other commenters in your thread, word of mouth is king in your line of work, and even more if you employ social media marketing.
There's a guy here in Brooklyn who started his detailing shop during the pandemic, and thanks to social media, he's now booking high-end brands on the daily.

How were you handling the calls before your current girl came along? was all that automated via Sideline? did you actually call your clients back yourself? How's your hearing? I ask because am severe/profound deaf from birth and my biggest struggle is with understanding various accents.

I'll be heading over to your execution thread to contribute to your e-commerce progress.

Yes I do call them back if I need to, I honestly don’t have issues talking on the phone.
My issues actually arise sometimes when the background noise is loud and talking with others in public. Not always an issue but sometimes, especially with someone with a heavy accent.

Thankfully my hearing loss has stayed the same and I’m happy with that. I do fear that one day it will get worse, but for now I don’t think about it, I am hopeful that one day there’s a surgery available to make it better.

I did send out one of my hearing aids to repair with starkey for $300 and I got a loaner in the mean time while I wait. I was able to find an amazing audiologist where I live. My current hearing aids I purchased them in Atlanta.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[dauntless]

Read/watch that again. You don't ask if they need help. You ask if they know anyone who needs help.

This thread might help too:

GOLD! - HOT! - MARKETING - Andy's Inbound/Sales Braindump

I was asked this a while ago: If you were to start your business from scratch, how would you approach prospecting? Given that you don't cold call. And you don't know many people in the business world to "spend your money on diesel and coffee" with. And you've already reached out to your friends...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

I've been slow to reply because I've been thinking about that. Wondering if a small reward for a referral may motivate them to help and spread the word.
I've made posts on Facebook about the skills I possess, and I've had family members and friends re-post it to their networks. It did not yield any results that way. But, it has me thinking that my approach has to be strategic, taking into consideration who they may know might benefit from my services/products.
One downfall of mine is that I don't have any social media presence. Thus, no reputation to hold. I probably should start by putting myself out there to create a reputation around my personal brand and build trust. My acquaintances may also feel better knowing that I am a trustworthy person and I won't hurt their reputation if they recommend me, lol.

 

[Michiel Arkema]

am capable of doing right now? website

Hello, Fastlaners!

I have posted in the forums before and suddenly became a lurker...again.

I won't lie, having been born deaf and living with hearing loss is a bitch. Mainly because interpersonal relationships and networking is much harder when I've struggled with clear communication skills for most of my life.
I'm almost 36 years old (my birthday is January 22). Fortunately, I am a recipient of a cochlear implant, an amazing technology that has given some of my life back, and with it...confidence to improve my communication skills. But that was in 2013, and it took me 10 good years for my brain to adapt to spoken clarity -- Neuroplasticity is pretty damn cool.

The problem? I started a virtual reality business before the pandemic which graciously failed. And now, I am able to pay the bills with an e-commerce business that I started with my fiance during the pandemic. BUT, the money is not enough thanks to inflation (clients are spending much less than before), and I find myself having to get out there and find something better.

What's my current plan? I want to start getting some sales experience in tech, SaaS, real estate, or medical tech.

What I am capable of doing right now? website design, medical technology product visualizations, architectural visualizations in 3-D and virtual reality, enterprise applications for virtual reality and augmented reality, product photography and video production for e-commerce, and wholesale sourcing.

What's holding me back? All of these skills take way too long to have a solid proof of concept, and I kind of want to start with something now. Oh, and my hard drive with most of my digital work f*cking crashed.

Why the rush though? You may be thinking that I could continue with the e-commerce business while I work on the side gig. Yes, this is a solid plan. But, unfortunately, I am currently battling with recovering my mother's widowed pension in Mexico, and she doesn't have any savings and suffers from seizures, thus, mental illness including depression and anxiety. And, I am her only child, and in order to help sustain her life, I need to make an additional $900 per month for her medication and basic needs.

What's the end goal? I'd love to learn new sales skills, grow my network, meet people, improve my confidence, and be able to learn how to get new leads in several industries.

I am based in NYC, and I'd love to hear any tips or advice on how to start being involved in sales whether it is B2B, B2C, sales engineering, etc...and anything that can be done over Zoom or in person would work best for me. I am not sure about cold calling due to obvious reasons. And, if anyone from NYC would like to be part of my network, please let me know, I'd love to get to meet you.

Thanks!

Instead of shiny object syndrome and switching business models every month, go pick one that you KNOW can work and put 100% of your dedication into it.

 

[Braun]

Hello my friend!
I only have my left hearing, most of my sales were made through WhatsApp chat. Last year between June and December I sold USD 42K in gym equipment.
And only in January of this year USD 40k.
I can assure you that I learned and continue to learn a lot about sales without having to personally talk to clients.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[dauntless]

Instead of shiny object syndrome and switching business models every month, go pick one that you KNOW can work and put 100% of your dedication into it.

I can see why it looks like I am chasing a shiny object syndrome. The truth is, I've had to switch skillsets due to many reasons in my 20's. I initially chose a career in cinematic visual effects which I did when I was 21 until 24 years old. At 24 I was working two jobs because why not? I could do both. Unfortunately, my father passed away when I was almost 25 and he left me in charge of his properties and will. Alongside that, he had an ongoing divorce, an affair, some lawsuits, and other sh*t I had to deal with for about a year or so. Naturally, the only money maker here was to rent the properties while I solved the situation. I did some remote freelancing on the side while I was in Mexico, particularly 3-D design, animation, and programming since I majored in visual effects and game design in college.

Fast forward 5 years, I worked as a virtual reality lead at a small startup. Again, I did some 3-D and programming to work on some prototypes for big name brands including Louis Vuitton and Porsche. Unfortunately, the technology was still in its infancy and was not profitable enough to keep the doors open. But, I did not stop there, I started my own agency in late 2018, and during that time, I realized very quickly that I was going to need sales and marketing expertise. It was impossible for me to do both since programming was already taking most of my time of the day to create the prototypes and use cases for prospective leads. I had to close shop as soon as the pandemic started, no one was willing to share a virtual reality headset for obvious reasons. I also had a 3 million lead with DFW airport with a partnering agency that also went belly-up as soon as the airports started bleeding money due to the pandemic.

E-commerce was the only thing that was helping me to pay the bills, and to learn some about sales and marketing. So, quite frankly, I was not going through shiny-object syndrome, I just had to adapt to different life circumstances.
I wish I could have specialized in something, now at 36 I'm dead set that I need to have control and can't rely on employers or market/industry volatility since I have a mother to take care of, and I'm very determined to focus on sales so I can finally sell my skills the right way.

 

[dauntless]

Hello my friend!
I only have my left hearing, most of my sales were made through WhatsApp chat. Last year between June and December I sold USD 42K in gym equipment.
And only in January of this year USD 40k.
I can assure you that I learned and continue to learn a lot about sales without having to personally talk to clients.

That's very encouraging, I always felt that cold calling was the tried and true best way to pitch to prospective leads and close deals. I felt quite limited during my 20's since back then textual communication wasn't the norm besides quick e-mails.
At the moment I am employing WhatsApp to communicate with foreign wholesale vendors and it's been working quite well. I think in part because I am approaching them as someone who needs their product, they don't even have to do the cold-calling and pitching, lol. On the other hand, I feel it's quite different when I'm approaching prospects on the premise that I am offering them a solution to a problem, and it's much easier for me to let them explain their problems to me face-to-face than via text. I imagine the same can apply to phone communication.

Are you approaching your leads by yourself? or do they approach through other ways? (social media marketing, ads, etc...)?
Those are amazing metrics.

 

[Michiel Arkema]

I can see why it looks like I am chasing a shiny object syndrome. The truth is, I've had to switch skillsets due to many reasons in my 20's. I initially chose a career in cinematic visual effects which I did when I was 21 until 24 years old. At 24 I was working two jobs because why not? I could do both. Unfortunately, my father passed away when I was almost 25 and he left me in charge of his properties and will. Alongside that, he had an ongoing divorce, an affair, some lawsuits, and other sh*t I had to deal with for about a year or so. Naturally, the only money maker here was to rent the properties while I solved the situation. I did some remote freelancing on the side while I was in Mexico, particularly 3-D design, animation, and programming since I majored in visual effects and game design in college.

Fast forward 5 years, I worked as a virtual reality lead at a small startup. Again, I did some 3-D and programming to work on some prototypes for big name brands including Louis Vuitton and Porsche. Unfortunately, the technology was still in its infancy and was not profitable enough to keep the doors open. But, I did not stop there, I started my own agency in late 2018, and during that time, I realized very quickly that I was going to need sales and marketing expertise. It was impossible for me to do both since programming was already taking most of my time of the day to create the prototypes and use cases for prospective leads. I had to close shop as soon as the pandemic started, no one was willing to share a virtual reality headset for obvious reasons. I also had a 3 million lead with DFW airport with a partnering agency that also went belly-up as soon as the airports started bleeding money due to the pandemic.

E-commerce was the only thing that was helping me to pay the bills, and to learn some about sales and marketing. So, quite frankly, I was not going through shiny-object syndrome, I just had to adapt to different life circumstances.
I wish I could have specialized in something, now at 36 I'm dead set that I need to have control and can't rely on employers or market/industry volatility since I have a mother to take care of, and I'm very determined to focus on sales so I can finally sell my skills the right way.

Pick what's working for you now and put all your focus on it brother.

 

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[Braun]

That's very encouraging, I always felt that cold calling was the tried and true best way to pitch to prospective leads and close deals. I felt quite limited during my 20's since back then textual communication wasn't the norm besides quick e-mails.
At the moment I am employing WhatsApp to communicate with foreign wholesale vendors and it's been working quite well. I think in part because I am approaching them as someone who needs their product, they don't even have to do the cold-calling and pitching, lol. On the other hand, I feel it's quite different when I'm approaching prospects on the premise that I am offering them a solution to a problem, and it's much easier for me to let them explain their problems to me face-to-face than via text. I imagine the same can apply to phone communication.

Are you approaching your leads by yourself? or do they approach through other ways? (social media marketing, ads, etc...)?
Those are amazing metrics.

I thought I couldn't sell as much on WhatsApp but I found out otherwise I'm trying to send texts and audios. Responding quickly is very important. I approached some leads by finding them on Google Maps and the majority were through meta ads.