I was having brunch with a friend last weekend and I was served two pancakes; the chef thought the first one was a little burnt. If you were at a Denny's or an iHop, they'd probably serve it to you anyway, but this chef worked at the restaurant known for their pancakes. So he still served it, he just served it with a second pancake. It was this interaction that's prompted this episode. Episode 129 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is about why it's important to own up to your mistakes, say you don't know, and just be honest when it comes to your work.
In this episode I talk about:
Like what you hear? Please leave a review on your favorite listening app or share it on your social media! I would also love to hear from you - send me a DM on Instagram @new_altitudes or @milsobox
Connect with Britt:
Website
MilSO Box
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
I was having brunch with a friend last weekend and I was served two pancakes; the chef thought the first one was a little burnt. If you were at a Denny's or an iHop, they'd probably serve it to you anyway, but this chef worked at the restaurant known for their pancakes. So he still served it, he just served it with a second pancake. It was this interaction that's prompted this episode. Episode 129 of the Moments with an MEO podcast is about why it's important to own up to your mistakes, say you don't know, and just be honest when it comes to your work.
In this episode I talk about:
Like what you hear? Please leave a review on your favorite listening app or share it on your social media! I would also love to hear from you - send me a DM on Instagram @new_altitudes or @milsobox
Connect with Britt:
Website
MilSO Box
Check out MilSO Box here: www.milsobox.com
Britt 0:00
There's such a benefit to being honest with your clients or customers because it creates a trusted brand. They now trust you to say, hey, guess what I made a mistake, but let me fix it. They trust you to fix it, they trust you to do your best work. And therefore they're going to say, I recommend this person, I recommend you to them. And there's a huge difference between, I know somebody who can do that. And I recommend somebody who can do that.
Good morning. It's another episode of the moments of an MBO podcast, and I am so excited to be tuning to silicides in a row, this is gonna be great. So today, I'm talking about two pancakes. And how this pertains to your business. Because it does believe it or not, it does. So a little backstory. Last weekend, I went out to brunch with a friend who I haven't seen in a long time, she wanted to go to this cafe that is known for their pancakes. And that's important to the story. So we go, we wake up extra early, so that we can get there because there's always a line there is always aligned to this place. People literally around the corner, there's nowhere to sit inside. And we're in Arizona, and it's summertime. So literally, people will sit outside and 100 plus degrees, and wait for an hour or more to eat at this place because of their pancakes. Now their pancakes are delicious. And they have so many different kinds. They have so many different spins on it, they have cereal related, they've got all the different kinds of fruit, they have a delicious cinnamon roll one which so good. And they also have this thing where if you've never been there before, and you tell your waiter that you've never been there before, they will bring you a free pancake on the house because that's what they're known for. They're known for their pancakes. So we wake up extra early to make sure we don't have to wait in an extremely long line in the heat. I ordered something I'd never had before. But it was like a strawberry basically think of like, strawberry food cake or like angel food cake, but make it a pancake. That's what I ordered. Okay, delicious, right? We wait for quite a bit because they have a lot of orders to place because they're very busy. Even though it's only like nine o'clock in the morning, we finally get our order and the waiter brings out two strawberry pancakes. And he says, The chef said that he wasn't too impressed with the way that the bottom of this first pancake came out. So he made you a second one. But there's nothing like actually wrong with either pancakes. So you get to so I got to take one home and eat it the next morning. And it was delicious. But it sparked something in me from a business standpoint. And that is owning up to your mistakes, even before somebody calls you out on them. And I think this is huge. And now please keep in mind that no one is looking at you. No one is going to be judging your answer. You don't have to tell your answer to anybody right now. But I want you to just sit there with yourself and ask yourself, am I the one to own up to my mistakes before people mentioned anything? Or before someone calls me out on it? Or am I the kind of person to just wait and see or it's good enough? Now there is a difference between owning up to your mistakes and being a perfectionist. And I just want to call out all the perfectionist listening in on this. Perfection is a perfect procrastinator, and I don't want that in you. So this is not if it's not perfect, then it's not worthy. This is a did you make a mistake that changes the quality of your work or the quality of your reputation? And if so, in those moments, because we all have those moments? Do you own up to it? Do you put the blame on something or someone else? What do you do in those moments? And this is important. So why should you be honest when it comes to your work and even your mistakes?
I know that there's a fine line in small business ownership where we have to balance professionalism with us being human And there's always a way to make something professional if y'all need help. If you want to send me a DM at New altitudes on Instagram and be like, Brett, this is my mistake. How do I say this in a professional way? Or someone else made a mistake? How do I make this professional but also make them fix it? Send me a DM, because I will help you out. But why should you be honest when it comes to your work, and honestly, this is what makes or breaks future sales, future relationships, and even relationships with people that you haven't even met yet. And here's what I mean by that. You don't know who knows who, when you're talking to somebody. I cannot tell you how many times in the last two and a half years, I have had a conversation with someone. And they've told me about someone else either in good or in bad light, it happens all the time. There have been many times where I have heard interactions, or I have seen screenshots of someone trying to work with someone else. And I have recognized that I don't want to ever work with someone like that, including them. It burns a bridge before I've even talked to them. Now, of course, there's truth to both sides. And then there's the real truth somewhere in the middle. But there are certain interactions that I have witnessed, as a third party that have completely turned me away from wanting to work or connect or partner with another human. And this isn't just in the small business world, this is just in general, there are people and I'm sure you've had a best friend, or even your husband talking about someone and you're like, oh, that person sounds awful. And they're probably not awful. It's just the perception of that person. But it turns you away from wanting to hang out with them wanting to be their friend wanting to spend energy on them. And the same thing happens within your business. Nine times out of 10 people write reviews on the experience that they had with your shop. And part of that experience is you owning up to mistakes, that chef at the pancake place could have just delivered me that pancake, they are so busy. If I never became a customer again, it wouldn't make or break their business. However, they have a reputation at being fantastic with their pancakes. And so it's so important for them for their reputation, and for their customer service to be good at pancakes. And the chef owned up to his mistake, which honestly, I love. I mean, I ate the second pancake the next day, I couldn't even tell that there was anything wrong with the bottom. But he could, I didn't call out his mistake, I didn't have them, send it back and make me a fresh pancake. Nothing like that the
chef just knew that it wasn't his best work. And he knew he could do better. And he knew he could do better in a timely fashion. And so therefore he did without me asking without me having to complain, without me just suffering through it without me writing a negative review later, he just fixed it. And so if he was an Etsy shop, I probably would have put that in a review, right? Like how amazing if I haven't already reviewed this place, I probably would have reviewed it again. There's such a benefit to being honest with your clients or customers because it creates a trusted brand. They now trust you to say, hey, guess what I made a mistake. But let me fix it. They trust you to fix it. They trust you to do your best work. And therefore they're going to say, I recommend this person. I recommend you to them. And there's a huge difference. And we'll probably do another episode on this. But there's a huge difference between I know somebody who can do that. And I recommend somebody who can do that. And what they're going to do is they're going to say I recommend her, I recommend the shop, let me grab you the link, because you don't want to work with anybody else. And that's the relationship you build. When you own up to your mistakes and you fix them. Nobody looks down on you for making a mistake and fixing it. People look down on you for making a mistake and not owning up to it. People get upset when they get their order and it's not quite right. And you knew that when it was shipped out. You just hoped that they didn't notice or hope that they don't say something that's unethical. That's not a trusted brand. And that's not someone that I personally would ever want to order from and I think A lot of you listening wouldn't want to order from someone like that either. So that's the power of building a trusted and a well known brand is that when you do things like own up to your mistakes and fix them, not only are you learning how to not make that mistake, or learning how to fix mistakes quickly, but you're also building a trusted brand and a well known brand, you're building that customer service, you're building relationships with customers, and they now trust you more than ever. Now, I've made quite a few mistakes. So many mistakes. And I've opened up to most of them, whether it's in a conversation on the podcast, whether it's a direct message with a client, like, hey, oh, my gosh, I've been so swamped, I totally forgot that I was gonna do that for you. Let me do it this weekend. Thank you so much for your patience. This actually was not on my outline. But something that I think is super important is that you don't have to say I'm sorry. I think as women it's kind of ingrained in us to do so. Well, you don't have to say I'm sorry. In fact, I
discourage saying I'm sorry, I have switched. And it's taking me probably close to a year and a half fish. Since I first heard this, this is not something you know, this is not a spark of my own creativity here. This is something that I was told while I was still in my corporate job. It was that you don't have to say sorry, you can say thanks for your patience. And I love this because it's an acknowledgement of the mistake that you've made. I know I was late on that, thank you for your patience. As I learned x, there is a power in not giving them the upper hand necessarily in your mistake. Because you could just say I'm so sorry, I totally messed up your ornament order. That's very different than Hey, I made a mistake on your ornament order. Thank you so much for your patience is I took an extra day to fix that. This is now done. And we I've shipped it and I want you to know I've included both just in case you do decide that the one that I messed up on is good for something else. There is a power in being able to say thank you for your patience, I have fixed this, thank you for your patience, I have owned up to this, thank you for your patience. Moving forward, this will not happen. Or I'm constantly learning. Sometimes I am late with my clients. And I try really hard not to be but that is something that happens. And so when it happens, I want to make sure that they recognize that I know that I messed up or I know that I'm late on something. And I want them to know that I recognize that I made a mistake or that I was late on something or that I haven't gotten to something like I promised. And so I love sending messages to people going thank you so much for your patience. I am running a little bit behind, but I'll be with you tomorrow, or I will get this to you by the end of Sunday. Something like that just helps them not only recognize that I know what I'm doing. But also they know when I'm going to get to it. It's not a thank you so much for your patience. I totally messed up on that clicksend There is a solution in there. And that's the key to this is that you own up to your mistake, but then you provide a solution. So something that happened that I was not aware of it was an honest mistake was that when I took over mail Suboxone, I put everything under new altitudes, I didn't correctly relay that information to our subscribers. And so I ended up getting some messages going, Hey, I just got a notification from new altitudes that my order is shipped. I think that this is MyLSU box, but it doesn't say mill so box it says new altitudes. So I'm just really confused. I made an email where I said, you know, thank you for your patience as we as I work out the kinks here. But then I also posted on social media like yes, new altitudes is mailbox. And you may have gotten this on your bank statement. You may have gotten this in an email. It's all the same thing. It's just you know how things roll. Now, I think it's important to come clean because people trust you people acknowledge that you're human which is also a plus. But offering a solution right off the bat truly helps with their anxiety or their worries about whatever it is and helps them feel like they want to recommend you even though you make mistakes, which is key. All righty guys, if you like what you hear on the podcast, asked please, please, please write a review or share the podcast with someone who you think would benefit from this. Look out next week for yet another episode and I want to know put in your stories or send me a DM. Would you send a second pancake