From time to time I'll send an email to my list, or post something on
social media, that generates a comment like this:
"I can't believe you said that - I would never hire you as a coach!!!"
My response (if I choose to respond) is to let them know that it's ok, I wouldn't work with them either.
You see, I don't want to work with overly-sensitive people.
I like to speak my mind, and I often lighten things up with a joke too ... if they're going to get super-offended over something I email/post then it's telling me that we wouldn't work well together.
By unsubscribing/unfriending/calling me names they're actually doing me a favour, since they're disqualifying themselves from ever being a client of mine and thus saving me time.
It takes a mindset flip here, since most coaches never want to offend a single person. They view everyone as a potential client, so they play it safe with their messaging.
About that mindset flip, it reminds me of a scene in the movie "Watchmen" when the vigilante Rorschach is sent to prison and a fellow prisoner tries to rough him/kill him in the cafeteria.
Before the prisoner can hurt him, Rorschach beats him to the punch and burns his face off with hot soup ...
He then yells to the other prisoners: "You don't seem to understand - I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!"
When you're putting your message out there, think of it as disqualifying those who you wouldn't want to work with and see how that changes your results.
I'm going to be going over how to create content that repels the wrong people (while pulling in the right ones) in the May issue of my Secret Coach Club hard copy newsletter.
It goes to print in a few days and you can subscribe here:
Marc