Today we’re talking about how to handle criticism, negativity and mean people online.
At some point in your business life, this is going to start happening. You or your business will be criticised, attacked or harassed. The bigger your business grows and the more well known you become, the negative nancys come along with it too.
Unfortunately, this is inevitable and it comes with the territory. BUT, it’s not the end of the world. In fact it’s an entrepreneurs rite-of-passage so it’s actually worth celebrating when it happens because it shows you’re doing something right.
But what do you do when it happens you?!?! Use these 4 tips to help you when you’re facing negativity in your own business.
TAKE A STEP BACK
It can be REALLY EASY to want to fight back and defend your case, but take it from me as someone who did, it doesn’t help, it makes it worse and it wastes a shit ton of time. So the thing I recommend to do is step back. Don’t do anything. Take some time to process. You’ll go through a lot of emotions and it’s important that you process them first. And what you’ll always find is that the more time you give yourself to process, the less you become affected by it.
KNOW THYSELF
A lot of business owners, especially newbies, haven’t learnt how to separate their self-worth from their businesses. And so what happens when a tough challenge comes up or they get criticised, they take it personally. And so this is why it’s important you actively build up confidence in yourself and your business from day one. There’s a quote Gary Vaynerchuk said that I absolutely resonated with and that’s this, “Once you know who you are, it manifests into self esteem. And after that you just don’t give a fuck.”
The reason I don’t take criticism personally is because I know myself and my business. I know that what I teach works and that people get results. And I know I’ve helped so many people online and in person grow their businesses and income. So I have an unwavering confidence in my business that’s been built up by things mindset, action, results and proof. Those things will come for you with time but the number one thing you can start working on right now is your mindset.
But I know for a lot of people it’s really hard not to take it personally. So to help you better process this there’s one fundamental thing that you need to understand and that is: When someone takes the time to tear your business down or personally attack you, they expose themselves for who they really are. Not you. And when you finally understand that, it’s liberating, because nothing affects you anymore. You can immediately see where the person is at.
FIND THE OPPORTUNITY
There’s always a silver lining when obstacles like these arise. You just need to weed through the crap a bit to find it. So for example, when I stripped everything back in the criticism I received, I found a lot of extremely valuable information to better my business. It helped me to see the areas that needed to be tweaked, tightened or added in my business, but most of all, it helped me create new opportunities to monetise. Now if you can take a situation that most would waste time stressing about and turn it into a learning (and money making) opportunity, you have successfully got business DOWN. But, if you do all of that AND find the humorous and positive side in it all, you have won at life.
DON’T TOLERATE BULLSHIT
If these people are getting to you. If they’re being downright hateful, nasty and cruel. Cut them off. Delete them from your groups. Block them from your website. Ban them from your social media profiles. Remove them from your email list. Don’t waste any more time or thought space on people who don’t have your best interests at heart.
Let me know in the comments below if you have had experience with criticism online & how you handled it.
