I went to a marketing seminar today. It was free so I figured why not.

One of the topics that came up more than once was people dealing with shitty customers. Customers who don’t value their work, who claim someone else can do it for a lower price, who give the seller attitude. Most of the people who encountered these problems dealt with it by giving it right back to the customer.

I don’t have these kinds of problems with my business. And I don’t believe it necessarily has to do with the products that I sell. I think it is my attitude. 

My friend C, sells jewelry as well and encounters issues like this. She sat with me at a market the other day (I was selling she was just keeping me company) and several times she commented on the nasty attitude of this person or how this person turned up her face when she looked at my pieces etc. I saw none of that. To her I am completely oblivious to it. But I think it may be that she is reading into things that have nothing to do with me or my products.

The bottom line is that I don’t take anything personally. If someone is shitty to me (I can’t recall it ever happening to be honest but sometimes people don’t respond with warmth to your approach, which for me is to be very friendly) then I figure it’s either their personality, or they’re having a bad day, they’re distracted…whatever. I just don’t make it about it me.

Also I do not have the expectation that I will have to defend my work or my prices. Ever. If it’s too expensive for you then you’re not my customer. Again, nothing personal. I don’t see it as my business to care about your feelings (like it is LITERALLY not my business). I approach every encounter from a neutral place. You like it? You wanna buy it? Cool. You don’t? Cool. Either way, I’m cool. 

My job as I see it is to make beautiful pieces that you can’t resist and to give you a positive encounter in your purchasing process. It is not my job to assess your mood, tone of voice, or whether or not you like my work. Not everyone is going to like your work. And I get more than enough positive feedback that when someone wrinkles their nose and says it’s not their kind of thing, I’m very ok with that. Cause… it’s not their kind of thing. That is how I deal with people in my everyday life. Not everyone is going to like me. That’s fine. In business you have to divorce yourself emotionally from your work. And I saw today that a lot of people can’t do that. And they burn bridges because of it.

What I learnt most from this seminar is that I’m doing a lot of things right. And that was some really great positive reinforcement for me.