Hi! I'm Marie
You have gifts to share with the world and my job is to help you get them out there.
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Button TextNot sure if you’ve dealt with this before, but if you’re a person who’s committed to achieving greatness and helping others (and I believe you are) eventually, you will.
Imagine this scenario.
You’ve worked your butt off and built a great reputation. People respect and listen to what you have to say because you’re honest, generous, and most importantly, you really care. And one of the things that gets you most excited is seeing others succeed.
Because you’re committed to living life to the fullest, you’ve become part of a vibrant community of go-getters who maintain a standard of supporting each other’s dreams.
One day, you get a request from a friend who’s also in this community. She asks you to endorse her and promote her to your network.
But here’s the rub.
She’s a lovely person, but her project is not something you want to get behind. While you don’t want to crush her dreams (maybe what she’s created is perfect for someone else), you also don’t want to promote anything you don’t believe in.
So what do you do? Situations like this can get awkward and uncomfortable fast, unless you know exactly what to say.
If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation like this, you’re going to love today’s episode of MarieTV.
You’ll learn a simple script that’ll help you say no to someone’s request with honesty and class. Click play to check it out.
listen to this episode on the marie forleo podcast
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View Transcript
Do you get nervous? Wah!
Elsa!
Elsa, I got to be styled!
Whoops!
Elsa! It’s… Aah!
Hey, it’s Marie Forleo, and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday!
And today’s question comes from Kelly, and Kelly writes, “Hi, Marie. One of the best parts of being in a community of like-minded go-getters is all the support and enthusiasm that’s so generously shared, but here is the problem. I value my word as powerful personal currency, and I’m often asked to make a referral or help a fledgling entrepreneur with finding prospects, or to tweet someone’s new program. While I love supporting others, I don’t know how to navigate this when I haven’t experienced someone’s work, or worse, I think they’re not quite up to snuff yet. How can I stand in integrity and support the success of another? Thank you so much.”
Excellent question, Kelly. I love it. It’s so good, and I especially loved what you said here: you said your word is “powerful personal currency.” Your word is everything in this life, both in business and in your personal life, and you have to protect it like gold. The best way to handle situations like this is to be honest and straightforward. Now, I’m going to give you a script in a minute that you’re going to love, but the real big lesson here is this: never recommend any product based on guilt, or you feel like you should, or it’s loyalty, or anything like that. The only reason you should ever recommend or promote anything is because you genuinely believe in it, and it’s based on your firsthand experience.
Trust takes a long time to build with your audience and your customers, and you can destroy that trust with just one email or one tweet or one Facebook update. As Benjamin Franklin said, and yes, it’s a Tweetable, “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it.”
When you have the privilege of other people’s attention, meaning other people are listening to what you say and they care about it, you have to protect that attention with everything you’ve got. Plus, you’ve got to protect your own reputation as well. In my business, you’ll notice I rarely promote or recommend things unless I’ve personally experienced it and I’ve received tremendous benefit firsthand. The last thing that you want to see happen is for someone to say, “Man, that is the last time I’m going to take a recommendation from her.”
So this applies even outside of business situations. Let’s say that someone says they need a new hairdresser, and you say, “Oh my god, you should go to my friend. She’s a great hairdresser.” If you don’t really know that that’s true, you don’t want to go recommending things just based out of loyalty. You really have to have proof of the quality of the thing that you are recommending. The last thing that you want is to be responsible for somebody else’s bum haircut.
Does it look good?
So to help you out even more, I created a script that you can adapt and use to support someone without promoting their work.
“Thanks for thinking of me. It sounds like a fantastic program, and I’ll be cheering you on, but I’m not able to promote. I have a policy not to promote things unless I seek them out, because I’ve seen results firsthand. Congratulations again and I wish you tremendous success with the program!”
There, you have it, Kelly. A simple script to help you be supportive and protect your reputation while being true to yourself. So now I’d love to hear from you! What do you do when someone asks you to promote something and you don’t want to promote it? Do you have a go-to script that you use? And on the other hand, have you ever asked someone to promote something for you, and they turned you down in a way that was classy and honest? I want to hear about your experience.
As always, the best stuff happens after the episode, over at marieforleo.com, so go there now and leave a comment. Did you like this video? Subscribe to the channel, and of course, share it with your friends. And if you want even more great resources to create a business and a life you love, get your butt over to marieforleo.com and make sure you sign up for email updates. Why? Because I say things in email that I just don’t say in video, and I think you should hear them, because they’re good.
Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams. The world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching, and I will catch you next time on Marie TV!
Hey, RHH Live is coming up! Are you coming? Go to RHHlive.com for details.
Oh my god! It’s in there. It’s like Ragu! It’s in there.
Yes, it’s getting to be that time of Q&A Tuesday.
How amazing is this? Like, do I even have a brain in my head? It’s kind of wild.
I’d love to hear what YOU have to say on this topic. In the comments below, let me know:
How do you respond when friends ask you to promote them and you don’t want to? Do you have a go-to script you use?
On the other hand, has anyone ever turned you down in a way that was classy and honest? What exactly did they say?
Be specific and tell me exactly what happened, what the communication was, and how you felt.
I’m a big believer that as a society, it’s important that we train ourselves to communicate in a way that is honest, clear and compassionate – especially in delicate situations.
Taking time to intentionally choose our words, and the energy with which we deliver them, can make a huge difference in another person’s life. So let’s take this opportunity to learn from and help each other, OK?
Share your genius in the comments below. I’m really excited to see what you have to say.
Thank you, as always, for tuning in, reading and contributing.
P.S. Stay tuned for a special broadcast about RHH Live this Thursday. It’s a time sensitive email so stay on the look out :)!
Love,
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