1:1 coaching for tech sales reps & leaders

You're hitting targets. Getting promoted. Leading teams.

From the outside, you're doing exactly what everyone expects.

But on the inside, there's something else going on that no one sees.

Before important meetings, your stomach knots. You feel like you're performing rather than just doing your job.

Afterwards, you replay the conversation in your head - what you said, how it landed, what you should have done differently.

When you're with family, you catch yourself mentally rehearsing tomorrow's calls instead of enjoying the moment.

And when you close deals or smash your quota, you feel a sense of relief rather than joy. A few hours later, you're already thinking about what you need to do next. 

That's the inner battle.

The one you don't talk about because you think you should have it figured out by now. 

The constant low-level strain of trying to stay ahead, stay in control, keep performing. 

You tell yourself this is just part of the job. That everyone at your level feels this way. That this is the cost of being responsible, ambitious and performing at a high standard.

And maybe that's true.

Or maybe you're carrying something that has nothing to do with the actual work.

When the pressure shows up, it's easy to point at what's in front of you.

The quarterly review when everyone's watching. The forecast call where you're put on the spot. The C-level presentation that your deal hangs on.

These situations feel like they're creating the pressure.

If that were true though, the pressure would disappear once the situation passed.

But it doesn't, does it?

You can be lying in bed on Sunday night but your body is already tense about Monday. There's no meeting happening. No one is watching. And yet something in you is braced.

So it's not really the situations.

Some people then turn to their thinking. They tell themselves they need to be more positive, more disciplined, stop overthinking.

That can help briefly.

But for most people it just adds another layer of effort. Yet another thing to manage and stay on top of.

But thoughts aren't creating the pressure either. They're just where it shows up.

What's quietly running underneath - before thought - is the identity you believe you need to protect.

The reliable seller everyone expects to do their number.
The calm leader who always knows what to say.
The responsible one who never drops the ball.

You're not consciously thinking about this identity most of the time. You're simply living from it, carrying it into every conversation and decision without noticing.

But when something threatens it - a deal slips, someone questions you, you get caught off-guard - your whole system reacts.

Your body tightens. Your mind speeds up. Your attention turns inward, monitoring yourself, making sure you're coming across the right way.

Nothing bad has happened but something suddenly feels at stake.

Your nervous system treats any challenge to this identity as real danger, and it responds the only way it knows how.

That's why pressure feels so physical. Why telling yourself to calm down rarely works. Why you can be completely prepared and still feel on edge.

Instead of responding to the situation in front of you, you're trying to live up to who your identity wants you to be.

You've probably felt moments when this pressure eased without you doing anything.

Maybe you were calm in a meeting when you'd normally be uptight, or you spoke your mind without rehearsing first, or a decision that usually takes days of overthinking felt obvious in minutes. You're still doing the same work and the stakes haven't changed, but your experience of it is completely different.

Your mind feels clearer - not forced or empty, just less noisy - and your body feels more settled. You're present in conversations instead of watching yourself have them, and things tend to flow.

This isn't passivity. You still care and you're still fully engaged, but the weight lifts. Work stops feeling so personal, stops being a referendum on your worth.

Nothing has been added. Something has moved into the background.

My story

I spent 18 years in high-stakes SaaS sales and made President's Club five times. From the outside, I was living the dream.

On the inside, I was having panic attacks before big presentations, constantly worried about work and always felt on edge, no matter what I achieved.

I thought this was just part of working at that level.

I was wrong.

When I saw what was actually creating the pressure - not my job, not my targets, but the identity I was defending - something changed.

Instead of trying to manage myself better, I saw what was creating the pressure in the first place.

Now I work with tech sales reps and leaders who are where I was: talented and successful, but carrying a mental weight that has nothing to do with sales.

Two options

If you'd like to talk:

You can book a 30-minute conversation with me.

You'll experience what the work is like rather than hear me explain it.

If you'd rather explore this on your own first:

You can download Pressure: The Inner Battle. A short read about where pressure actually comes from.