Shark-proof! It’s the easiest solution to the complaints “The maid is a crybaby.” “The house cleaner is emotionally unstable.” “The housekeeper is bent out of shape.”
What is the shark-proof concept? And what does it have to do with a teary-eyed house cleaner and customer feedback?
Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru shares tips today on Ask a House Cleaner for the people pleasers. If you’re a maid living on the edge of your emotions you need a shark-proof box. Get a shark proof cage and sharkproof yourself to be a savvy cleaner.
Listen: Shark Proof – Maid is a Cry Baby
Watch: Shark Proof – Maid is a Cry Baby
Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer.
Question: Shark Proof – Maid is a Cry Baby
Now, today’s question comes from a teary-eyed house cleaner who will burst into tears if you look at her cross-eyed or give her constructive feedback on her work. She lives right on the edge of her emotions. Plus she cries, gets all upset and bent out of shape. She wants to know, “How on earth am I supposed to run a business when I am so emotional?”
Answer: Shark Proof – Maid is a Cry Baby
Well, that’s an excellent question, and my answer for you is this — you do not run a business this way. If you are that emotional, you’re not going to survive in business.
Customer Feedback is Golden
When a customer is bold enough to give you some information, like, “Your cleaning sucks.” Take that to heart, that is gold. If you can fix this problem and apply it to all your other house cleaning accounts, you’ll never lack for work.
It’s the house cleaners that just cry and get upset all the time, that makes the job harder for themselves. Instead of saying “Oh my goodness. My customer gave me gold. They gave me some feedback that can revolutionize my business if I make those changes.” They go home to rant on the private Facebook group about their hateful customers.
First, I want you to change the way that you’re thinking about your business. If a customer gives you feedback, that is gold. Use it and grow your business.
Don’t Take It Personal
Now, as far as the emotions go, there’s a lot of other stuff going on. In our world as house cleaners, we are people pleasers. We want to please people. We want to make them happy and we want to provide them solutions. So when a customer comes to us and they’re like “Hmm. You didn’t cut it,” we take it personally. We get offended and upset. I get that. I’ve been there. I understand.
Okay, so I’m going to share with you the shark-proof concept and I hope it helps you. Here’s how it works.
Shark-Proof Box
I was on a trip one day, and I had about a three-hour window between my flight and my last appointment, with nowhere to go. But there was an aquarium nearby, so I went there. It had all these displays of exotic fish. There was a great, big archway made of water. It had fish and sharks and all different kinds of sea life that were swimming around this tunnel of water. You walk right through it. It was awesome.
In one of the displays, there was nothing but a clear glass box. I was so enamored by the clear glass box because it was obvious that it didn’t belong in this display. There was an information specialist standing there, so I decided to ask her a question.
I said, “What’s with the clear box? There’s no fish in it.” She said, “No, that’s not for fish. It’s for people. That’s a shark-proof cage. We put photographers in the shark-proof cage and we lower them into the depths of the ocean. They can stand there, in the shark-proof cage, and they can take photographs of the sharks. The sharks can get close, but they can’t harm the photographer. And the photographer can’t harm the sharks. Then, when it’s time, we reel the box back up to ground. And we’ve got all these amazing underwater sea life photos.”
Shark-Proof Concept
I was like, “Whoa. Okay, so there’s a shark-proof box.” As I left that day, I started thinking, “I need a shark-proof box, to put myself in. A box for when my customers that are like, “Agh,” so they can’t harm me and I can’t harm them.”
As I left that afternoon, on my flight back home, I started thinking to myself, “What happens if I have an invisible, shark-proof box that I place over myself every time I feel threatened?”
Well, there are a couple of negative people in my life right now. So I decided that every time the phone rings and I see the caller ID, I would say to myself, “Shark-proof.”
What that meant is, “Put on the invisible box right now. Because this person is going to call with free drama, and you’re not getting paid for that. You’re not going to get sucked in.” So you can listen with the ears, you can pay attention, be kind, and not get caught up in the drama. Because there’s a shark-proof box protecting you. Nothing they say can harm you. At the end of the conversation, they will reel you back up to ground and you’re completely harm-free. Don’t get sucked into the drama and don’t involved.”
1994 – The Shark-Proof Year
I played this game for about a year. I had a no-drama year. The year was 1994. I decided, for one year, I was going to shark-proof myself from all the negativity that came into my life and not get upset. I wouldn’t allow anybody to push those hot buttons because I got a shark-proof cage around me. And so, I found myself almost like a new mantra, saying, “Shark-proof, shark-proof, shark-proof.”
Every time a customer would give me constructive feedback, I’d think “Shark-proof, shark-proof.” “This person is giving me gold. What can I do with this information? Because guess what? It bounces off this shark-proof cage. It can’t hurt me. It’s not about me, it’s about the business.” I was able to isolate myself from those hateful comments that some of our customers have.
Shark-Proof Yourself
If you’re one of these people, where you wear your customers’ opinions on your sleeve, guess what? I’m telling you this. You can shark-proof yourself and you can be like Teflon and it bounces off of you.
You can take that information and make the necessary tweaks without taking it personally. Because if you shark-proof yourself and your business, you’ll go so far and so fast. It’ll happen because you won’t take everything so personal or let it bring you down.
Because there’s nothing quicker that will bring you down than the toxic opinions of people you admire or respect. Some opinions will bring you down because you’re a people pleaser and you want to do your best work. But the best work you’re ever going to be able to do is where you are incorporating the feedback they give you. And when you shark-proof yourself.
Don’t internalize it, because you don’t want it to eat at you or keep you up at night. You need to be at your best, so you can turn around and put in place all the feedback that you received.
All right, so take this shark-proof concept and go put it to use. Remember, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.
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Resources For This Episode
30 Days to Taming Your Emotions – http://amzn.to/2xbNO8w
Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life – http://amzn.to/2xQSFZY
13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success – http://amzn.to/2j5UgYb
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ – http://amzn.to/2xbb865
Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life – http://amzn.to/2xba569
Emotional Intelligence: 100+ Skills, Tips, Tricks & Techniques to Improve Interpersonal Connection, Control Your Emotions, Build Self Confidence & Find Long-Lasting Success! – http://amzn.to/2vNx4Uy
Time Warrior: How to defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-commitment, broken promises and chaos – http://amzn.to/2wJwd4P
Crazy Good: A Book of CHOICES – http://amzn.to/2xQ5QKv
100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, Third Edition: Change Your Life Forever – http://amzn.to/2j51YC7
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