
·S2 E39
S2. E40. Off the Cuff: Are you Open to Feedback?
Episode Transcript
It can be dangerous to only hear your voice.
Sometimes you need to be open to feedback.
On the weekend, I attended a workshop.
It was virtual and it was supposed to be an hour and a half.
And after the first hour of the workshop, I remember thinking to myself, wow, the webinar has really taught me absolutely nothing.
And what the title of the webinar was and what it proposed to be teaching attendees was nothing of the sort.
Really, it was this guy just kind of talking about his experience and talking about all of his past successes, talking about his backstory and how he can now use that program to help you.
But it wasn't even clear how exactly it would help you.
There was no tangible information other than, trust me, I have a system that works that would make you want to try it for yourself.
He didn't go through step one to give you a preview, take you through it so you could see how it works for yourself.
And you could at least go and apply that.
Because I do think that, you know, if you're going to teach somebody and you want someone to buy your methods, you should at least get them a little bit for free so that they can understand if they want to work with you or if they want to purchase whatever you have to offer.
So anyways, I was just thinking to myself, wow, this has been a waste of an hour.
And a part of me was like, I can just hang up off the oom at any time.
But I was like, no.
There's going to be value at some point, maybe.
And I was kind of doing other things, so I didn't really mind to have it on in the background.
And eventually some people in the chat started writing and complaining and say, can you get to the point, please?
We're not getting a lot of value here.
We're not really learning anything new.
And the reaction of the presenter was simply, you can leave, you can hang up and leave if this is not for you.
And the thing is, I understand if they were saying that, you know, his program had no value.
But they were actually giving.
a good critique.
The presentation at least until that moment, had not been of value.
It wasn't a reflection on his program.
It wasn't a reflection on him.
It was a reflection on that current webinar.
And I thought to myself, wow, he was just so quick to say, guys, you know, never mind, like, just hang up, just go, bye.
As opposed to taking that feedback and saying, you know what, maybe my presentation.
is not structured properly.
Maybe I need to tweak it.
Maybe I need to give people more.
Maybe I need to talk about myself less because this is not driving the impact that I want.
If multiple people are saying that they're not finding value in it, to be honest, as a presenter, that's like the worst thing that you could ever experience is people saying that they don't find value in your presentations.
Take it from me.
I do public speaking.
I do presentations all the time.
And it is always something I am hyper aware of.
It's something I actually do check ins along the way.
I'll do many stop points.
Is this, is this resonating with you?
Are you learning something here?
Is this valuable?
Is this beneficial?
Because if at any point I ever get feedback that says no.
Then I need to pivot immediately.
I can't wait till the next presentation.
I have to fix it then and there because that's where my audience is, and I might not get another opportunity.
And so for this presenter, he really missed an opportunity to think outside the box or think on the fly and just try to change his presentation so that it could actually bring value to the attendees.
People still stayed around, but in the end, a lot of people, myself included, end up hanging up because I just couldn't figure out what the value was.
And it's not my job to figure out the value.
It's the presenter's job to convince me of the value and not even convince me they should just provide value and make it so obvious that I immediately say, yes, this is amazing.
This is so helpful.
I want to dig deeper.
So.
That's the message don't just be so used to the way you do things and only looking at something through your perspective, only hearing your voice, that you're so confident in whatever it is you're doing, that you've drowned out everybody else's opinion, you've drowned out everybody else's feedback, especially the feedback of those that you want to listen to you.
Sometimes there can be negative feedback and you have to close your ears to that.
But if multiple people are saying the same thing over and over again, take it under consideration and step back and say, Is there merit in what they're saying?
Is it possible I might need to tweak something or improve something?
Or is it possible that if I utilize their feedback, I can develop a better version of myself?
Or Or a better product, or a better service, or whatever it is that you're doing.
We weren't made to be in this earth by ourselves.
So people's opinions do matter.
It doesn't mean that they have to be the end all and be all.
We shouldn't just live in a world with only our opinion, because then we would all be in little earths by ourselves, but we're not, we're all on one planet together.
So part of community, that exchange, that reciprocity, give and take.
So make space to hear other people's opinions and just see, because it might be mirroring and reflecting something back to you.
That's important and you don't want to miss it.
Until next time, continue to serve yourself, your loved ones, and your communities from a full cup.