The same question came up 3 times this week, and as luck would have it, one of those times was on our latest Love Your Business call, so I turned that clip into another “Just One Pithy Slice” video for you. Helena Heppner asked me to reiterate what I had said the day before, and was gracious enough to “stay on” the video with me.
What we’re talking about is that moment when somebody does something that totally deflates your inner balloon. You know, when things like this happen:
▶ You’re giving a presentation and someone interrupts and tells you that she knows someone who went to a practitioner of your modality and got some help but the real solution came from working with the interrupter in her modality.
▶ You’re in the middle of a demo class and somebody says “I don’t feel anything different. This just seems silly to me.”
▶ Your client has come for several sessions, you can see some progress, and then the client tells you she wants a refund because “it isn’t working.”
▶ You’ve been invited to be interviewed for a summit or a giveaway and every time you answer a question, the interviewer says something like “Oh, interesting, I could say exactly the same thing about MY work, which is…” and now she’s off an running on an advert for her practice in the middle of your interview.
For years, in situations like these, my first internal reaction was complete deflation followed quickly by the urge to slap the person into the next room (thankfully, I have a really strong gatekeeper who always made me stay on my own side of that internal fence). Then, after that, I would feel bad about myself for a long time.
I continued to have the same difficulty until I learned the 4-step template that I explain in the video below. This template can be adapted to nearly any situation that’s even remotely like the ones I described above—and it’s really simple and easy to put into effect by remembering these 4 simple steps:
- Acknowledge her and make her right
- Social Proof
- What you might not realize is…
- Thanks!
One of the reasons this template works so well is that it provides information people generally don’t have. That’s the info that’s inside your head that makes you feel justified, resentful, angry, or just plain hurt… because “Don’t they realize ____?”
Um. No. They don’t.
That’s why this little template is so effective and why you need it in your back pocket if you’re going to deal with the public.
To see how it works, check out the video.
