If you are building anything, you will have haters.
People won’t be shy about letting you know how much you suck.
I get 2-3 emails a week from people that are generous enough to tell me how dumb I am.
There are good ways to handle the criticism and there are really bad ways to handle it.
Earlier this month Dave Ramsey handled it about as bad as you possibly could. He put out $10,000 bounties and called them cowards on Twitter.
This is something I struggle with.
I routinely want to punch people in the throat when they criticize me.
So, I talked with my friend Chad who specializes in botched PR campaigns and turning negative publicity into big wins. He has worked with everyone from state governors to top executives at Fortune 500 companies.
I recorded the call for you guys to learn from (listen here ) and distilled the gist of the conversation into 3 main points.
He also gave a few specific suggestions on how Dave could salvage his current situation and turn it into a big win.
How should you handle haters?
If you don’t have haters now, you will eventually. Decide which option you will take.
Option 1. Ignore them
This is what it looks like:
.
.
.
.
See.
Silence makes you lose interest.
Downside: It’s kind of boring. Every ounce of your body wants to fight back. You want to explain yourself and reason with them.
“If they knew WHY I did that, then they would understand.” No they wouldn’t.
Shutting up and not saying anything is extremely hard.
This is the best way to end the hate. Just be quiet.
Unfollow them. Delete them from your email list. Ban their IP. Ignore them.
Option 2. Engage and provoke them
This is exactly what I want to do everytime I get an idiotic email and see a tweet criticizing my work.
Earlier this month Dave chose this route.
This is what it looks like:
Over the last 5 years, one of the single biggest influencers on my life has been Dave Ramsey. I’ve bought every product he sells, read every book he has written and listened to 1000’s of hours of him on the radio.
But responding to haters by calling them cowards and publicly shaming them is not smart.
Does it make you feel good? Absolutely!
Does it make you look petty and busch league? Yep.
It wastes your time, empowers the hater and you regret it 99%* of the time.
3. Win them over
This is the most risky. The most humbling. The most pride reducing. The most unscalable response of all.
…and for those reasons no one does it.
Earlier this year Pepsi was being publicly criticised for an ad campaign. They dressed Jeff Gordon up as a used car salesman, took a customer on a ‘routine’ test drive and then involved him in a staged high speed police chase.
The customer had no idea what was going on but everyone else did.
The campaign was a hit, but soon after Travis Okulski started making public claims that the entire thing was fake and didn’t really happen.
Pepsi had 3 options:
- Ignore it
- Engage
- Win them over
They chose #3 and it was executed brilliantly.
Here it is:
Cool story, but how do I not punch a hater in the throat?
Next time you are in the heat of the moment and want to fire off an email or punch your hater in the throat, do 2 things first.
Number 1: Let Chad talk you down off the cliff.
He is really good at what he does and has successfully navigated some really touchy situations. Read this post then watch that video. If that does not work, proceed to #2.
Number 2: Just chill out. Go take a Yoga class. Go for a walk. Pray.
Just calmmmmm down.
This isn’t life or death. Quick taking yourself so seriously.
*All percentages were completely made up by me to illustrate a point