When starting something new in business (sales, leadership, outreach, or growth strategies), have you ever caught yourself thinking, "I need to figure everything out before I try this" or "I don't want to look bad if I'm not good at it yet"

In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, property management growth experts Jason and Sarah Hull explore why every entrepreneur begins at what they call "Level Suck." They discuss why many business owners resist feedback, avoid practicing in front of others, and stay stuck repeating the same actions instead of improving through experimentation.

Jason and Sarah break down how humility, rapid testing, and consistent feedback are the real drivers of mastery, and why the fastest way to grow is to be willing to start imperfectly and get better through iteration.

You'll Learn

(02:05) Practicing New Skills and Getting Feedback

(06:10) Ego, Humility, and Why Growth Requires Both

(10:30) Sales Mastery: Volume, Testing, and Iteration

(15:10) What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Children

Quotables

"Anything new that you start with, you're not going to be amazing at it right away."

"This is the worst that you're ever going to be."

"It doesn't mean that you're bad. It just means that the test failed."

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

Transcript

Jason & Sarah Hull (00:01)

Five, four, three, two, one. All right. I am Jason Hull. This is Sarah Hull, the owners of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. For over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry.

eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now, let's get into the show. Today's episode, what we're going to be talking about, our topic is, we all start at level suck. All right. Where do we start? We'll get rid of this. level suck. I'm sucking right now, I guess. Here's a good example. Okay, we all start at level suck.

Anything new that you start with, you're not going to be amazing at it right away. And a lot of times we don't even want to start because we want to figure everything out first. want to figure out how to be amazing already because we don't want to fail or look bad or not know what we're doing. And so most people are unwilling to fail. And one thing I've noticed about children is children just try stuff. They just do shit. They just want like they'll just

play and it's experimentation and it's fun and they learn incredibly fast what works and what doesn't work. so a lot of a lot of people don't don't act like children in that way. And so we've this is one of the things we coach clients on is be willing to suck. So that's the topic today. So we've been teaching BDM. So what are we noticing? Well, today was the first time that they actually got to practice.

and role play. they weren't that bad, actually. It's not like they started at suck. The first time they looked at the script. Yeah. But for the first time ever saying it out loud and practicing it in a semi real mock situation. Yeah. You know, it's not like they were so horrible. And then we went, wow, this is to take you a really long time.

figured that out. No, they weren't. I mean, they were not amazing at it. But for their very first time ever trying it, and I was throwing a couple curveballs at them. Yeah. They were they were doing they were doing well. They were handling themselves decently well. And it wasn't amazing. But I said to them, this is the worst that this year ever going to be. Yeah. That's great news. This is

the first time that you're doing it and this is as bad as you are ever going to be at this. Yeah, they were willing. They're willing to do it. And yeah, you can see the trepidation or that it was a little awkward at first to step into that and get started. So. But we've all felt that we've all I felt awkward for them. I'm like, ⁓ let's see how this goes, right? And they did fine, right? The first time, like you said, this is the worst you're ever going to be.

is what you told them. So that's the good news. You're going to get better at this. And ⁓ they did OK. And then we can give them feedback. our goal initially, my goal was to encourage them, because you don't want to be like, you're the worst. I can't believe. No. So we want to be encouraging and point out the good they did, and then offer some constructive ways they can take things to the next level or step up. And that's the other piece to this is.

You have to make sure that you are willing to suck in order to in front of others in order to be able to get the feedback you need in order to improve consistently. so a lot of a lot of people we coach initially, they don't want to. Look like they don't know something, even though they're here to learn.

They don't want to look bad in front of others. They don't want to give us a call recording of their sales call. They don't want to, know, and really what you're saying is I don't want to improve. I want to improve if I can figure out myself, but I was already trying to figure it out myself before I came to you. So I'm not going to be able to figure it out. And, and I've learned that one of my most valuable ways to get as much out of a coach or a mentor as possible is to say,

Here's honestly where I'm at. Here's what I'm dealing with currently. Here's the challenges I'm experiencing. What feedback do you have for me? And sometimes if you're opening yourself up to feedback, it can feel pretty uncomfortable. It can, but that's, think, really how we grow is, all right, don't sugarcoat it for me.

Don't tell me I'm amazing if I'm not because I won't be able to improve. If I already think, ⁓ I am so good at this. I'm so amazing. This is going to be awesome. it doesn't leave any room for improvement at all. If you already think, hey, I'm amazing at this. And if you actually are amazing at it, great. Then you'll get the results that you want. But if you think you're already amazing and

the results are telling you a different story, but you still think, I'm so good at this. Then there's a disconnect. And if you're not leaving any room for growth or improvement, then that's how we get stuck. And then I almost feel like it snowballs because a lot of times I think when people, don't, I don't know why, but I feel like so many of us have been trained to try to not look stupid.

in front of other people. They're like, I don't want to look dumb. I don't want to seem like I don't know something. I don't want people to think that I'm not great. I don't want to be raw and vulnerable in that way. I want everyone to think that I'm amazing. Even if I don't think I'm actually amazing, I want other people to think that I'm amazing. And I understand that. really do. But there does have to be a part of you that is able to separate your ego enough.

You don't have to completely kill it, but separate the ego enough to say, where can I get better at this? Because no matter how good or how bad you are at something, there's still room for improvement. You never really get to the top and you're like, well, right, I'm on the top of this mountain and there's nowhere else to go. You can be amazing at something and still have a lot of room for improvement.

you can still get better. Yeah. So there's a scripture that says pride cometh before the fall or something like this, this truism. And so, you know, a lot of times we in business, we fall prey to our own blind spots. And that's where we learn some really strong lessons. I've experienced that. Many of you listening probably have. And so

The secret to really making progress, to really learning, to being able to grow is humility, which is the opposite. And humility isn't debasing yourself. It isn't putting yourself down. Humility is just recognizing honestly where you're at in relation to maybe others or in relation to the goal, or it's just having a more accurate view. That's humility. I think also humility, we create that naturally by recognizing others' hand.

in our accomplishments and what we're trying to do and in our own success. Because the opposite of humility is like, man, look at everything I did. I did this all by myself. The opposite of that would be, hey, look, God definitely had a hand in me doing all of this. know, Sarah's had a huge impact in helping me with these results. You know, my different team members have, you know, so I can, others hand in what we're accomplishing.

That's how you create humility. And really humility then is just reality. It's just actually getting connected to reality and saying, I'm so great. I did all this stu...

DGS 334: Be Willing to Suck: The Key to Rapid Improvement