The Power of Responding to Reviews
By Elle Wilson
Let me ask you a question . . .
Do you love your work? What about when your worst client is hissing for a discount. Or when your favourite is about to look in the mirror and you know you mucked up her brows? Or when your schedule is empty and you wonder how you will pay your bills?
Believe me, I’ve been there.
Even when things seem hopeless, you can still love your work and succeed.
It all depends on one very simple choice which ultimately depends on a powerful change in YOU.
You may believe you have heard it all before. However, this is where it can get tricky. When we side step, overlook, think we already do it, know it, we can throw away one of life’s golden treasures.
If I was to offer you a rare and precious diamond, would you give it back?
In this article, the universe is sharing with you one of its most powerful laws.
Do you have time for it?
Consider, in skim reading or taking a shortcut here, right now, you may be giving away the one true way to live a life of meaning and success. You may be giving away the precious diamond given to you freely.
This could be the rest of your life’s most defining moment. I know about twenty years ago it was mine.
I was sick and tired of struggling. Difficulty and challenges are part of our journey here, struggle isn’t.
Power is a Choice
You are the power-holder.
The power to choose whether you react or respond to your challenges is not just a conceptual idea, but an internal shift. It is your birthright and to live a life that is truly inspiring you must claim it. Its recognition will turn you inside out, right side up and your life, your real life will begin.
Anything prior to this will take you back to struggle. You will be defined by what others and the world are doing to affect your business and your life. You will be like a straw in the wind, hoping for a good day!
The truth is that your circumstances don’t bring success, you do.
A negative/small mind-set (they are one and the same) attracts failure, and the use of the word negative maybe not subtle enough; any attitude where you are not the power-holder leads to ultimate failure.
Personal failure and business failure are all the same. We cannot separate what is inseparable.
Our personal lives are intrinsically woven into our careers. Don’t be fooled by thinking they can be seen as separate. Although an attitude of love can only bring success, success that isn’t reliant on the outcomes alone.
That’s how I built my career, and I want to share that power with you. Love and watch your business grow!
Reject the Negative
Unfortunately, our world makes it so easy to react from negativity and small mindedness. Reactions are just the patterns of your environment and your conditioning telling you what to do, who you are and what you are capable of.
They are knee-jerk reactions. They’re empty inside, fighting fire with fire; a sure way to lose what you already have.
A reactive mind-set burns up your profits, your energy, and your happiness.
Even when we are working with clients all day and feel drained, it’s never the really clients that drain us, but rather our thoughts and our reactivity to the experience they leave behind.
This is a key to understanding where our true power comes from and how to use it to live a full and true life. It’s a little like waking up, smelling the roses and suddenly realizing you are alive.
Reading this message is a perfect start: I’m inviting you to be very honest with yourself. Do you show the signs of a reactive mind-set?
In our introductory issue, I want to share with you practical ways you can begin to recognize when your negative/small mindedness kicks in and how to stop choosing failure and struggle.
Beware: Two Deadly Habits
Let’s consider the deadly habits of the small minded/negative mindset.
Deadly habit #1: The first deadly habit is gossip.
So that bitter client walks out the door and you whisper to your colleague, “You know she just split up with her husband. No wonder she’s impossible!”
The negativity of that client goes into you and comes right back out. The reactive mind-set is empty. It just fills with issues and spits them back onto your business.
In this situation, it goes far deeper and as you share this with your staff member or colleague, you begin to set the terms of your relationship with her and your business. You are plainly showing them your values which they will reflect back to you… be sure to remember where it began.
To become a worthy salon owner, you need to become a worthy leader.
Gossip is the first deadly habit you must never practice. Become the woman your staff and colleagues want to become, set the terms and watch your salon flourish.
Deadly Habit #2: Another deadly habit is the mentality of lack.
“There’s not enough money, not enough clients, not enough business, not enough talent.”
You fear your staff as much you fear other salons.
The truth is that no person or business can threaten you. If you’re looking to the competition, you’re not looking at your true power.
Response will achieve success. As soon as love/response meets your brain, it begins to turn into success. It responds to life, and life responds with happiness and profits. There’s no other way.
Consider response moving within your business. Its perspective is powerful and proactive. It sees possibility everywhere and its focus is on opportunity. It attracts what it is becoming and you begin to realise the easefulness of the universe.
Life is made of love. If this sounds corny, take care before you knock the statement, because it’s true. Furthermore, so are you. When you react to issues, you overlook who you really are and what life has to offer you.
Negativity isn’t real and doesn’t speak to who you are.
As soon as you let this statement in, you stand in your true power, and life responds to you like a mother hugging her child. Happiness, success, and profits pour in when you stand in your own power. The richness of life flows to people who carry it, not those who throw it away!
When you deeply consider that you are the powerholder and you choose how you move each and every moment of every day, something changes. You change.
Life no longer seems like it is happening to you. Life happens and we can react or we can respond.
Each moment extends to us only this invitation. One shuts us down and the other opens us up and we flourish like a beautiful flower. Guess which one works and which one has failure written all over it?
Response Wins Every Time
When you respond, you are active, responsible, deliberate, and you are graceful.
You become the kind of person who attracts success, as sure as water flows downhill. You do what you say, and you do what’s right, even when nobody sees it. You wish success to others.
I want to take it one step further and really give you a precious gift… you care for your own mind, like your salon, keeping it clean and warm, expressing who you are. And most of all… giving love!
The state of your mind is the state of your business – guaranteed!
So here’s the invitation: respond.
If your staff are talking behind your back or slacking off, respond to them.
They love their negativity no more than you do. They’re calling for something different, someone different. In fact, they’re calling for YOU
Show them what you are learning by learning it with all of your heart.
When you respond instead of react, you build trust and empower your staff to deliver value. The former has no power to create change as it is simply regurgitating the old conditioned patterns. It holds no true value.
Remember the law of business: money flows toward value.
Your core values are the foundation of your success. Your core values empower you to embrace all your challenges. Relax, slow down, and begin by eliminating the deadly habits of the negative/small minded mindset, now.
Build a business on that strength and nothing can slow you down. In the end, your business is the moment your client looks in the mirror and thinks, “I love it!”
If you don’t see the beauty in yourself, how will you see it in your client’s eyes. It’s what she’s paying you for! Your whole business is based on your power torespond, including your challenging clients. All you have to do is respond, and success will follow.
