Selling Dirt

Longtime readers may remember the story about the time my two oldest daughters had what I believed was a lemonade stand.

But when I walked down to the street, I discovered they were selling bags of dirt.

Dirt.

And they had already made sales.

At first, I thought, “Wow, my neighbors are nice people.”

But then I stood there and watched.

My daughters were not just sitting behind a table hoping someone would stop. They were engaging people. Explaining what someone could do with the dirt. Talking about the benefits. Making the case.

It was one of the best sales lessons I have ever seen.

Those two girls are now 29 and 27, which is crazy enough by itself. But as I thought about that story again, I realized I may have missed the most important lesson.

You do not know what might work until you are willing to try something that might not.

And I think that matters more than ever.

Business as usual is costing a lot of companies right now. Same conversations. Same approaches. Same habits. Same ways of responding to what is changing around them.

It happens in our personal lives too.

We keep waiting for something to change while repeating what we already know is not working.

Yes, the economy, AI, politics, changing customers, staffing challenges, and everyday pressures are real. They affect every one of us in different ways.

But the bigger question is how we respond.

Are we trying enough new things?

Are we testing different approaches?

Are we willing to sell a few bags of dirt just to see what happens?

That does not mean being reckless. It does not mean throwing out everything that already works.

It means not being so quick to dismiss something simply because it feels different, uncomfortable, or unlikely.

A different question.
A different offer.
A different way to start a conversation.
A different approach with an employee.
A different way to follow up with a customer.
A different way to solve a problem you have been living with for too long.

Small tests create movement.

And movement teaches us things that thinking about movement never will.

My daughters did not hold a strategy session on whether there was a market for dirt. They did not overthink the offer. They put some dirt in bags, went to the street, talked to people, and found out.

That is the part I keep coming back to.

They found out by trying.

I do not want this article to be interesting.

I want it to be useful.

So this week, try one small thing you might normally dismiss.

Not because you know it will work.

Because you do not.

And you may not know what is possible until you are willing to sell a little dirt.