It’s Not My Time… It’s Your Reputation

Honestly my first thought was "How rude of these people to waste my time."

This past month I’ve been to four business-building events. I was a speaker at three of them. I booked over seventy-five "follow-up appointments". I had team members block the time on my calendar and send the other party an appointment to go onto their calendar. There were two "reminder emails" one the day before the appointment and another one fifteen minutes before the appointment, and the day before the appointment a team member called to confirm. It was overkill but my thinking was that, if it was important enough to schedule the appointment in the first place, it is important enough to make sure that we both showed up.

For the most part people called when they were supposed to but about ten percent of the time my phone didn’t ring. I would call them about five minutes later as a courtesy… maybe they couldn’t find my phone number. Whenever I’d call, nobody would answer. I’d leave a message. None of the messages were returned.

The first few times this happened I was frustrated, then I realized that I had plenty to do to keep me busy and it was kind of nice to find thirty minutes magically open up in my day.

I wondered about the people who missed their appointments. They gave up an opportunity to grow themselves and their businesses. Oh well, their loss. Then I realized that it went much further than that.

What does that say about them? I thought about something that my mentor says, "The way you do anything is the way you do everything."

I began to think about where else they don’t show up in their business. Where else do they fall back on commitments? What other appointments do they skip? What else do they not take seriously?

Then I wondered where in their work do they miss things or show up late? Are these people I would ever refer to? Would I hire them to do a service for me?

I am sharing this with you as an example. I encourage you to take how you are being perceived in the world very seriously and would like to offer you the following reminders…

1. Before you take on something, make an appointment, or agree to do anything, check in with yourself and make sure that it’s something you truly want to do. If you’re not sure about it, or know it isn’t something you want to do, then say something before you get in too deep.

2. When you make a commitment to someone remember that you are also making a commitment to yourself. If you don’t fulfill that commitment you are not only letting the other person down, you are letting yourself down.

3. Remember that the way you show up has a direct bearing on how others will perceive you. When you are an entrepreneur you are always selling even if you are buying. Be your best self.

One thing I want to clarify here. You can be your best self and not be perfect. It is okay to make a mistake. Sometimes being your best self is about how you address a mistake that is made. It can be as simple as an apology. Had any of the people who missed our appointments called me and apologized I would be happy to rethink the impression I have of them.

How do you want to show up in the world? What do you do to make sure that the impression you want to have is the impression that you have?