Introduction: This is a guest post from Tim Brownson from A Daring Adventure, someone I have gotten to know over the last year, and have been consistently impressed with his heart, his groundedness, and his practicality.
More than that, he’s one of the only people I’ve ever met who has successfully marketing himself as a “Life Coach” without any other kinds of marketing message involved. He has a secret sauce. Read the article, which won’t give you the secret sauce but will help you with understanding referrals. Then click through to his website (after saying hello to him in the comments here). I think you’ll understand the secret sauce. Something to learn here, folks.
No, I Won’t Give You A Referral
I recently received an e-mail from a client that I hadn’t worked with for over three years. It only contained one line and it said:
“I need a marriage counselor, I need the best and I need one now, can you recommend somebody?”
I immediately thought of a guy that I used to know from Toastmasters. We had become friends after representing our club in a speaking competition and as he had a PhD in counseling and specialized in relationships issues I presumed he must be good at what he does.
I was about to reply when I was struck by a thought. How do I know this therapist is really any good? Sure, he’s a nice guy, he makes me laugh and he has some heavyweight credentials, but what gives me the right to recommend him to somebody that trusts my judgment?
A month or so ago I got an e-mail from another Life Coach the subject line of which read:
“Are you taking on new clients?”
I’m full most of the time, but I was only working about 7 days out at the time and certainly not at the stage where I was considering turning clients away.
I opened the e-mail to realize that rather than being a serious question, it was yet another request to join yet another social media site. This time it was Referral Key.
I have to confess I was a little bit irritated because this seemed like a pretty manipulative way to get people to open e-mails they may otherwise simply delete.
Even so, and being a bit of a social media sheep, I signed up.
As soon as I did I got an autoresponder asking me to score the person who had invited me to join in various business areas.
By now I had a definite sense of unease because I was being asked to rate somebody who I didn’t really know. Or at least nothing like well enough to say:
“Hire this guy he’s brilliant, I put my professional reputation on it”
Because make no mistake, that is what I would have effectively been saying if I’d have scored him highly.
Over the next few days I had a bunch of similar requests and all but one from blogging consultant Michael Martine who I do know very well and would always recommend, I didn’t have any working knowledge of the people asking me to refer them.
You may think I’m taking this too seriously, but to me this system (and others like it) are at best cavalier and at worst, corrupt. It uses dubious tactics to get people to open e-mails and then employs the law of reciprocity to, de facto, force new members to refer the person that invited them in.
After all, if somebody invites you to join a club are you likely to then refuse to refer them or slap them in the face by giving them a low score? Of course not.
Yet every time you recommend a person, company, product or service you are putting your own reputation on the line as well as theirs. Many people either don’t realize this, forget it in their haste to be ‘nice’ or just simply don’t care.
Every now and then I will get an e-mail from another Life Coach asking if I can offer a testimonial for their website. I nearly always say no.
Not because I have any issues whatsoever offering testimonials, even to other Life Coaches. I have done this several times and it’s a great way of saying thanks to somebody I have worked with and who has genuinely helped me.
However, the requests I get are from people I have never worked with in a professional capacity, but know from either my blog or social networking.
I love my blog readers to bits and equally I love social networking, but let’s be realistic about their limitations when it comes to getting to know most people.
Over the last couple of years I have worked with over 50 clients that hired me after finding me on Twitter. Some of those people I ‘knew’ online for months and in a few cases years, before they made the decision they wanted to work with me.
Quite often I had a sense of what the client was like before we started a professional relationship, but sometimes I wasn’t even close. Let me just say that what people show you on Twitter in not necessarily what they are like when the conversation doesn’t stop at 140 characters.
If you have worked with somebody that has given you great service, definitely refer them and let others benefit from your experience. But if you are recommending people you don’t really know or just because they are a friend then you risk ruining your own good standing if something goes wrong.
I did reply to my ex-client with the name of the counselor, but added the caveat that I really couldn’t vouch for his professional competence, just that he was a nice caring guy.
I have also closed down my Referral Key account and can say with complete confidence, that if I recommend somebody it will be because in my opinion they rock. And not because I feel guilty, want somebody to like me or don’t like to say no.
What about you?
Tim Brownson is a Life Coach, author and owner the A Daring Adventure blog. He has just written a comprehensive ebook on goal setting and you can grab your own copy by clicking the link
41 Responses
I cannot agree more! Reputation is everything and if you’re putting your reputation on the line by giving a referral, it is important to make sure you know what you’ve just endorsed. I like the way you couched your response to the referral request. Shutting down that referral key was probably a wise decision.
Yep, I’m glad to see the back of RK, especially as I now have Google+ to suck the remaining hours out of my day 😉
Tim,
You clearly missed the mark with Referral Key which has, if anything, been criticized for being too tight-knit and regulated. Obviously the corner stone of our business is reputation based referrals but on the other hand, we aren’t social babysitters. Social media is a user driven experience and if someone chooses to have 5 professionals they’ve known for 20 years or if someone decides to network with 100 looser connections; it’s up to them. You obviously chose to network with someone you didn’t know very well. If I accept a friend invite from someone I’m not too close with on Facebook then it is my decision and I will live with the consequences, it obviously has nothing to do with Facebook; RK is no different, its simply a tool.
First, you shouldn’t accept an invite to a referral networking site from some one you do not feel you know well enough to referral network with. You could have just denied the invite and signed up on your own. If you happen to receive an invite and having at least “some” basic understanding of social media; you would know that we did not send you the invite but rather the person that knows you did. They chose to send that message as well.
Second, the reason you were uneasy rating this person’s services is because you did not know them which addresses your second point.
Last, you could have easily deleted that colleague and added people you would have wanted to network with.
It’s nice of you to bash a new free tool like Referral Key and tow the Google line. It shows that you are a real innovator, life coach, and small business focused. I realize you would have had to actually used the service to write a useful blog where you talk about the features so that readers could actually make a decision for themselves and walk away with something useful. I wouldn’t expect that though because that would have been a more difficult.
What readers can take away from this blog is how out of step the majority of small business owners and armature bloggers are. The chasm presents a huge opportunity for those of us trying to actually solve the more difficult unanswered questions in social media, “How can we build trust and drive actual referrals rather than just promoting the same old 3 social sites, amassing contacts, and publishing opinion pieces.”
I’m glad to see the back of this blog.
You’re right, I don’t even have a basic understanding of social media Chris and I feel so foolish now. Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways.
What I don’t understand though is you’re an innovator, a solver of difficult unanswered questions, why are you wasting your time with the likes of clueless losers like me?
Surely it’s not that RK is getting the same accusations leveled at it elsewhere and you’re on a damage limitation exercise?
A tad harsh at the end btw seeing as this isn’t my blog.
Wow Chris, you just missed a gigantic opportunity to engage someone in useful dialogue about your service that could have turned them around into a supporter, or at least more informed consumer.
My suggestion to you is to take a nice deep breath before responding to criticism of your service. You will have supporters or detractors in any market, and that is OK.
It sucks when someone says a negative thing about something you have worked hard on. We have all felt that sting. But attacking them is not the answer.
Tim is a smart, stand-up dude with a right to his opinion.
So, I imagine, are you.
Maybe you can start over with your response and see if there is a way to take in the criticisms of the service with the hopes of improving it?
Just a suggestion.
haha, this one should be titled:
“How NOT to respond to negative criticism of your product.”
I’m sure Tim is a good guy and that’s not what prompts a less than agreeable response.
I do believe in engagement (obviously) and all things social media but its a misconception that its going to be “agreeable”. When someone writes a damaging piece that lacks facts, there’s only 3 choices…
1. Don’t engage (the pre social method) 2. Point out how the article was flawed 3. Try to sell people on the product (social world needs less of this)
The second is what I chose. Now I expect people willing to counter-post on this blog to be fans of Tim (obviously) and under different circumstances perhaps we could have a meeting of the minds.
The lesson here is that as a blogger you need to put up your 6th sense and remember there are real people behind the pages we see on the net. Journalistic integrity is important which is why a traditional outlet is much less likely to write a negative smear piece about another company, with no facts, as a side story to a soft article on “trust”; which I think we all strive for.
The idea of social engagement does not equal “amiable”, or agreeable, in fact the truth sometimes is not. Now if I publish an article about how I am “all about trust” and I use Tims company as the antethisis example throughout the story, clearly don’t know much about what he does, and end it by saying “I turn my back on this and look toward (popular social blogger). I wouldn’t be offset or suprised if Tim showed up questioning my credibility.
Tim,
Though TIm and I have worked together in the past, I came here after seeing a Tweet from someone that is neither involved in the comments nor the blog itself.
The reason I replied as I did was because:
a) several misspelling grammar mistakes that made your comment look rushed and in poor form
b) I am a member of your service and to date, have had zero gripes, but after reading your comment feel like using your product is a mistake
c) Your well intended response was laced with nastiness. Sometimes you have to take the higher road
I agree that it’s smart to defend your product, but I don’t think your comment comes across as it should. Perhaps a better way is to email the author privately and see if you could work something out.
OK, I admit, I typed Tim when I should’ve said Chris…but you get the idea.
You missed 4) Take the comments on board, address the ‘unfounded’ criticism, ask how you can improve the product and avoid getting personal. That makes you look professional and responsive.
By the way, you actually didn’t address one of Tim’s main and most damning points, which was that the emails sent through your site, presumably default ones, seems manipulative – blaming the other user is a total cop-out.
It’s not that you disagreed, it was how you disagreed. And you’re not doing much better now by calling commenters my fans as though they are only posting to support me and don’t really have a mind of their own.
If you’d followed the conversation on Google + and Twitter you would have seen people talking about this that don’t even know me and there weren’t many, or even any that I saw, favorable comments about either RK or the way you handled this.
And btw, Colin is right, you never even addressed the spammy e-mail comments.
If your brand is what people say about you behind your back, then the response to this (quite reasonable I believe) blog post has given a LOT to work on.
Social media is made up of people. People talk. We prefer, all things being equal, to work with nice people.
What do you actually want people to be saying and thinking?
“It
Nathan, you might find this post I wrote amusing.
It’s about a horrible incident of Benihana (Kuwait) trying to defend its reputation after a popular blogger wrote a negative review about it.
http://catalyze.co/how-not-to-respond-to-negative-feedback/
It cracks me up every time I read it. But I could be biased. 😛
Well that certainly made me want to try RK out…I think not.
Good, thoughtful article, Tim.
I think you’re quite right to decide that RK and tools like it may not be a good fit for someone who takes his professional integrity very seriously. Personally, I like it when people I know refer me on trust, but I’m much happier to have referrals from students I’ve worked with and helped. I know I’ve earned those ones.
I’m with you Colin! I love getting referrals from people I’ve worked with. Just got a message on Facebook yesterday from a former client who wanted to send someone my way. Feels damn good, doesn’t it?
As for RK, I was inundated with requests to join. Irritated me right off the bat!
Thanks Tim!
I don’t know this service at all, so I can’t comment specifically on the service itself, but I know you well enough to appreciate your time, kindness and directness concerning how people connect with one another. Specifically, I think your work embraces the understanding that most people want to be happy, genuinely happy, not just “liked” in the sense of Facebook.
This post reminded me of the “like” and “add as friend” buttons, actually. It’s a random opportunity to get your name below a well known without having to do much of any research or get yourself in a sticky, or argumentative (like the response from the site above written by Chris) situation.
It seems your just stating you value the respect people give you for your opinion, and don’t want to confuse anyone by being generous with a thumbs up “just because they asked.”
Sounds like the service missed this quote by Seth Godin, “Connect, create meaning, make a difference, matter, be missed.”
Tim, as I read this I was thinking “I hope that email didn’t come from me.” If it did, sorry about that. This was a pretty revealing piece of work, as were the comments. I especially appreciated what Pamela Slim had to say. Anyway, nice article, you made some excellent points. I think it’s hard for some of us social media neophytes to grasp the proper degree of involvement (or even the value) of the whole social platform.
No it wasn’t Jonathan!
In fact the person who sent it me, seems very much like a good guy, although I don’t know him that well, so I have no issue with him whatsoever.
I don’t know what the big deal is. This blogger gave this company a personal verbal lashing and to be quite frank I didn’t really see too much about the actual product inside the article so it did seem a bit off the cuff. I don’t really think Chris’s response was really that harsh. I also happen to think that a comment scroll isn’t a place for everybody to just agree with each other.
The comment scroll if for interaction about a blog post. That is exactly what has been going on here.
I didn’t feel the post was about Referral Key as much as it was about making referrals too readily, out of politeness or mutual interests.
In fact, Referral Key seemed like a promising service but being used in bad ways (like all sorts of spam on all sorts of social networks).
But I didn’t appreciate how Chris responded to the post, and it’s defensive attitudes like this that can damage a company’s reputation more than any negative comment.
I also have a suspicion that “Billy” shares the same IP address as Chris. Of course it’s just a suspicion, but I’ve seen it happen before.
As someone who also suffers from momentary snarkolepsy, I have to say that this comments stream is both hilarious and compassion-evoking.
I feel responsible to the people to whom I recommend something, and if they have a bad experience, it’s my reputation that’s on the line. So, I want, very much to only give out recommendations that I know will work out.
When people ask for referrals or testimonials from people that they admire but that don’t know their work personally, we end up cheapening the entire referral system. That serves no-one.
It’s the people who ask that are the trouble. Those, and the ones that are too non-confrontational to say “no” back.
The medium is just a medium.
Hugs and Coca-cola to y’all.
B
Tim-
Don’t (yet) know you .
I’m in the same boat with referral key. Realtors – of my barest acquiantence have spammed me because I did the “courtesy addback” on LinkedIn.
I have had 30. And the “are you taking new clients,” is manipulative.
Because there isn’t business to be had. I said to a realtor “this is hurting your personal brand.” He responded “you’re a negative waste of time.”
The same guy asked me to join some ridiculous MLM some time ago. That he’s since abandoned. That he told me I was an idiot for not watching a 28 minute video.
Ah well.
Oh come on Chris you know damn well we’re BFF’s 😉
Apparently the other Chris doesn’t think that’s manipulative so I guess we are at an ethical impasse.
>>>Over the last couple of years I have worked with over 50 clients that hired me after finding me on Twitter.
Wow, that is actually an incredible figure! Very impressive and you are a prime example of someone really putting Twitter to work for them.
As for the weirdly aggressive comments from Chris, I never knew people got so full of rage over someone’s like or dislike of Referral Keys…! Yeesh.
Thanks Greg. I must admit I love Twitter and put most of my social media effort into that as opposed to LinkedIn and Facebook and the return is definitely worth it.
Referral Key may be getting all the attention here, but this post addresses a concern to almost anyone who networks…whatever the venue. This includes face-to-face meetings and membership in your local Chambers of Commerce and clubs like Toastmasters.
If I was to hire everyone I network with, I’d be broke and my life would be filled with things I didn’t need.
My brother has never mowed my grass, but you can bet I’ll give you his business card if you need someone to mow yours. Then, the only sure-fire way for me to ensure you’d be satisfied if I got on the tractor myself — or not. He might have a bad day or the client might be unreasonable. Anything could happen.
Still, this post bravely points out a fact that must be in the back of every reputable businessperson’s mind when networking.
Some referral organizations try to address the issue through regular feedback about each member offered at meetings. LinkedIn tries its best to ensure you only connect with people you truly know. The best “features” can not eliminate the potential for a referral to let you or your client down. It’s not a new problem. What’s changed, as the blog points out, is the frequency and the popularity of this low-cost marketing technique.
I think we all should be mindful of two things:
1.) You are providing a service when you pass a referral to your client. You are helping them connect to someone who provides what they need. You are helping them filter out a name among a bunch of other names.
2.) It’s beautiful when everything works out, but if it doesn’t, you will be remembered for making the connection. Even the business I’ve hired before may not deliver a repeat performance. You can improve your odds of keeping your clean reputation by following up to referrals. Sometimes giving people an opportunity to complain is all they need. And the feedback will prevent you from repeated the mistake.
Networking is an art. So is owning a business. I appreciate this blog post very much for saying what needed to be said. It’s a reminder that we must be careful. It’s also a reminder that, in the end, we much each chose who we hire based on our instincts about that person — not just based on “Tim said so.”
LinkedIn is weird in so much as I regularly get people connecting by suggesting we once worked for the same company when I have never heard of said company. I do think they do their best to keep it above board, although like most things people find ways of corrupting the system.
Wow! What a response this post has received… Quite a stir.
I’m guessing there are a few people have wandered over to this blog from Twitter or other sources, who may or may not be aware that most of our usual readers here are heart-centred entrepreneurs who want to make a difference and need to make a profit… And who are willing to step up to the possibility that every act of business can be an act of love.
A lot of the teachings that we bring to the business world embrace the spiritual paradoxes of humility and sovereignty… Which – at risk of over-simplifying – is about standing for what is true for you, and also being willing to bow to the divine that is in all things.
So, I’m responding in that spirit.
Tim, I appreciated the reminder to think twice before referring people that I know when I haven’t necessarily been a client of theirs. It’s a good point, and I liked your solution to share the name of the person that came up for you, and to speak the truth about what you do know about them, as well as the caveat of what you don’t. This reflects values that are important at Heart of Business: honesty and integrity.
Chris, in your response I was reminded of something else that can be easy to forget: that behind any business, system or website, there are real people, doing their best to provide a service and/or make a living. I can see how Tim could have referred to “a certain social networking site” without mentioning Referral Key, and perhaps this would have been more respectful.
I also get that considering that he didn’t, and your company has been spoken of negatively, and publicly, by one of your clients, there’s an opportunity to engage in the humbling process that within the Heart of Business team we refer to as “cleaning up business mistakes”.
I’d like to say that we’re perfect here, but we’re not. We’re human. And we make a lot of mistakes…. At least I know I do. More than I would like to admit, perhaps. And I recognize them when my clients complain, or the vibe gets funky, or when my own heart just doesn’t feel present in what I’m doing anymore. Working with Mark and Jason, I’ve learned a lot about how to engage as fully as I can with the process of cleaning these mistakes up… The full process we use is described in the free workbook that you get when you complete the Remembrance Challenge.
But for an example of it in action, here’s one of Mark’s recent posts on dealing with some tough feedback from a client.
Love Yollana
You have a point that maybe I could have skirted round the issue and not mentioned RK by name. Although it may have blunted the point and Chris had a great opportunity to represent RK’s point of view that I think he missed out on.
I think we agree on that point. And it’s a great lesson to everyone still reading about the leadership that we each step into as business owners, and how to step up to that, even when it’s personally challenging .
… You know when you have an argument with someone, and end up being defensive to their face, but kinda reflecting on it and taking it in after they leave?
Being an optimist, I’m holding space for the possibility that Chris might be on that journey right now.
I’m someone more interested in group process than in social networking sites or small business per se. I came across this discussion and thought I’d offer a few reflections from a relative outsider to the business world. I don’t know any of the individuals here personally and don’t choose to use any of the mentioned networking services.
Like Yollana, I appreciate Chris’s reminder that there are human beings behind a website, and in the case of RK, Chris obviously has invested his heart deeply in his enterprise. I’m struck by how many of the commenters berated Chris for not censoring himself to “look better”. I have to say, when it’s obvious that an author or businessperson is working at looking good, I feel less connected to them. Even if what someone is expressing is anger, frustration, hurt, I would rather hear that honesty than something “professional”. Hm…even when it’s directed at me? Yes. Others might say that’s just not good for business, and I’d say that from a heart-centered perspective there’s also good in taking a stand for authenticity. What I’m seeing in these comments is a lot of effort to berate and even shame Chris for his authentic response, clearly driven by his passion for his work. It’s an interesting tension from the “heart of business” perspective, I think.
I’d also like to point out that Tim was point for point just as sarcastic and defensive in his first response to Chris as Chris was in the last two paragraphs of his first comment (the remainder of Chris’s comment was very relevant and not overly-personal). I’m still watching for Tim to also take time for reflection about what he did that could have been more skillful. In his last reply to Yollana, he did not fully take in her suggestion and deflected the criticism again onto Chris.
It seems that we’re at that juncture in so many situations of social conflict at the micro level. Who is going to find it in their hearts to step down first, stop pointing the finger, and look at their own part in it? I think that’s the real opportunity for healing in any context. Waiting for the other person to go first never works and misses the point! Both Tim and Chris have attacked each other’s reputation and there’s room for both to accept this.
Since only a few commenters have noted this, I’ll explain where it seems to me that Tim could have also done better here. Tim’s complete dismissal of RK in his article does seem gratuitous, or at the very least based on inadequate research. Trust within social networks is a huge and important topic, and so are the politics and economics of the various social networking sites. Tim could either have taken the time to research those issues before commenting publicly on RK in particular, or he could have stuck to the main points of his article about trust in referrals without discussing RK.
Yes, Tim is entitled to his opinion, but in writing a blog article and positioning himself as an opinion leader, he needs to accept responsibility for doing sufficient research to be fair and not misleading. Then, having publicly discredited RK (without any comparison to other networking sites), he might have been less surprised by an honest response from Chris. Finally, he could have taken on board the points about users having a good deal of responsibility and freedom in how they choose to use any social networking tool; to not research those choices is again their own choice.
There is only so much that sites can do to control the experience of users. It’s interesting to me that folks seem to take it so personally when they receive email invites. If a new networking site is established, of course there’s going to be an onslaught of invites for a certain period of time as networks get established. If someone chooses to use social networking at all and benefits from it, then why not just accept email invites as a side effect and delete the ones you don’t want? Problem solved. Nothing personal, really, but of course we all have hearts and are vulnerable to the world of experiences. That said, I do hope Chris takes into account the suggestion of changing the default subject heading of RK’s invite messages to clarify that it’s an invite.
If anything I’ve said seems unfair or hurtful, that’s not my intention and I apologize.
I’ll just address a couple of points because I feel like I’m speaking to Chris’s PR firm, although I’m sure that isn’t the case Jackie.
1. Mark runs this blog, he read the post and liked it. So I’m comfortable with that.
2. Can we please get rid of, or just eat, this huge red herring of me not doing my research. I used the service for crying out loud. It’s a service and I used it What do you expect me to do? How much research did you do on it before you wrote such a lengthy riposte?
3. Enron had people behind it, every business has people behind it. I’m not comparing RK to Enron, but it’s another non-argument.
4. I have not attacked Chris’s reputation. I have attacked the spammy and manipulative way (in my opinion because that’s all I’m offering here, an opinion) a business he is involved in operates. Big, BIG, difference.
5. If you had seen Twitter and my Google+ stream after this post published and how many people agreed with me and ripped RK for exactly what I said. Many of these people don’t know me from Adam and NOT ONE person stepped in to disagree.
6. What makes you say it’s obvious Chris has invested his heart deeply in his enterprise? How do you know that? It may be true, but as you don’t know Chris or his service that’s a ridiculous assumption based on 2 blog comments.
7. There isn’t a #7 because the more I thought about this, the more I just think you have been sent over here to defend Chris. It is kinda weird that of the 2 comments doing so, neither had links back.
PS You do the realize the irony about you telling people not to point the finger, right after you pointed yours at me, right? 😉
I guess my comment only served to further harden opinions, when my intention was to point to the process of the discussion itself and try to bring some balance. My apologies. I’ll leave the discussion now.
It’s risky of Tim to accuse you of being Chris’ PR team. Clever if he’s right and alienating if he’s not. I appreciated your insights, Jackie, and would be happy to hear from you again on this blog if you have an alignment or interest in the topics explored here.
I do believe that in any conflict, there can be lessons and growth opportunities for both sides.
(writing from my iphone, so I’m not sure if i’ll show up as logged in or what…)
You’re right Yollana it would have been risky to make that accusation.
Which is exactly why I didn’t do it.
I said it “felt” like that and when I followed up by saying “I’m sure that isn’t the case” I meant it.
But apparently you were reading what you expected me to say rather than what I actually said.
Hey Tim…
Thanks for clarifying that when you said “I’m sure that isn’t the case”, you meant it. It can sometimes be hard to read tone in print / online. That para combined with your point 7 gave me a certain impression and I am glad to hear that my impression was misguided.
Thanks again for your original post here… and your presence to the flow of comments since. It’s nice to have fresh voices at Heart of Business, even if I admit it’s taken me some getting used too (like, hello? Tim is not Mark, he is not going to say what Mark would say… lol… duh!)
I don’t know if that makes sense, I think my response was less about anything I expected *you* to say, and more about making space in my heart for different voices on the blog.
Life is an always-learning journey, to be sure!
Love Yollana
Holy bajoli! I go away for a few weeks, and look what happens…
As the owner of this site, I’ll make a few comments:
1. I completely support Tim’s original article, or I wouldn’t have allowed it to be published. While Tim expresses things a little more sharply and differently than I do (why publish a Mark clone as a guest post?), I chose to let the article be published because I had found myself agreeing with it completely- what he related had been my experience, too, although I never actually signed up for Referral Key.
2. I can understand why Chris, from Referral Key, would have a strong reaction. It hurts when you do something with sincerity and people react strongly. I, too, have received my share of criticism over the years.
I agree with Pam Slim, though. Chris, you missed a chance to really connect with us here. You are absolutely allowed your reactions, and it probably wasn’t the most effective response to this group of people.
Chris, and anyone else interested, this may be helpful:
How to Handle Getting Slammed by Clients
3. Yollana is a star! I think you all can see why she’s on the Heart of Business team. Why haven’t you all hired her already? BTW, that’s a recommendation, if you didn’t notice… 😉
4. To everyone else- I so appreciate the honesty and heart and discussion in this community, especially with controversial topics.
Thanks for your support Mark I appreciate it.
I think we all learned something from this. Now I have to figure out exactly what that is 😉
My partner and I stumbled over here coming from a different page and thought I might check things out.
I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to checking out your web
page for a second time.