The Tuesday That Taught Me to Sell… and to Breathe

When growth is learned by swallowing hard and gritting your teeth

Between the Lines of Leadership · A Headhunter's Picks (50)

Today I'm going to talk about me, and about some of the "guts" of headhunting. Because I believe leading also means letting yourself be seen. Because nobody gets to lead through a perfect formula, you get there along a road full of doubts, stumbles, lessons and hard work. And because we so often forget that behind any success story there's a past full of knots in the stomach, calls you didn't want to make, and moments when you'd have rather just stayed home.

Almost 20 years ago, I was 25 and just getting started in the headhunting world. I was young (well, I think I still am 😊), hungry, and with barely any network. What I did have was one thing marked in red on the calendar every single week: sales Tuesday.

What was it? A whole day spent cold-calling potential clients. Nonstop. Dialing, pushing, finding any way to land five sales meetings in a single day. No emails, no LinkedIn (it didn't exist for that yet). Just the phone. Phone and pressure. We did it in an open space, everyone in plain sight, with a whiteboard where you wrote down the meetings you'd closed. If you had nothing to write… it showed.

For me personally, it twisted my stomach into a knot. There were Tuesdays I showed up with real anxiety, to the point that the day before I already felt so much pressure that some weeks I was almost throwing up just thinking about what was waiting for me the next morning.

Illustration of a tense salesperson making calls in an office with a sales Tuesday whiteboard

Not for lack of commitment, but because the system was so intense, so short-cycle, that it overwhelmed me. And even so, I learned.

It wasn't a negative experience. It was a demanding one. It taught me to handle rejection, to stay consistent, to keep pushing even when you don't see results right away. And above all, it taught me something I still value a ton today: the culture of effort.

Because real growth isn't free. You have to try. And fail. And try again. And again. And if you do it with public exposure on top of that, like that whiteboard in front of everyone, and under pressure, it's harder… but it's also more formative.

In a moment when people sometimes chase the result without the road, the applause without the rehearsal, I have huge respect for those who keep betting on sustained effort, on work done well, on getting a little better every day. It may not be instant. It may hurt. But it leaves a mark. And it builds character.

Today, two decades later, the world has changed. Cold calls still make sense, but the approach can (and should) evolve. Now we also work from content, from reputation, from relationships built beforehand, from LinkedIn, from leading with value before we ever ask for anything.

Do I still believe in direct prospecting? Absolutely. But not necessarily under the "nail it all on one Tuesday or you're done" model. Now I believe more in doing it with strategy, with time, without burning out young talent, and above all without putting someone's self-confidence on the line over an empty whiteboard.

Illustration contrasting an overwhelmed professional in the past with his confident, triumphant self today

I wanted to share this story because leading also means having been there. Through the hard phases. Through demanding methods. Through moments that really test you. And because when someone tells me they're stuck, that they feel the pressure, that they can't bring themselves to do it… I remember that Tuesday. And it gives me perspective.

Sometimes growth hurts. But it also teaches. And that lesson, if you know how to digest it, can be the start of your leadership.

🎥 And to close, here's a talk from Gary Vaynerchuk (yeah, you already know I have a soft spot for him)

"Learn to Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable"

In this video, Gary Vee drops one of those truths that's hard to hear but worth its weight in gold:

"If you want to grow, you have to embrace discomfort. People want results without the discomfort. But what changes your life is exactly the thing that makes you uncomfortable."

Gary talks, with his usual energy, about how growth only happens when you step into hard terrain, where you're not in control, where you don't know if you'll come out okay… but you come out stronger. It's the same message I wanted to share through my story: effort, even when it's uncomfortable, shapes you. The discomfort, if you accept it, transforms you.

PS: Yeah, sometimes to lighten up sales Tuesday we'd dress up 😉…..