Can You Really Control Your Reputation?

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                             (Estimated Read Time 3 minutes)

I’ll start talking about reputation in my new few posts. What is reputation? Reputation is something we all want, isn't it? It can mean success or failure. I think it's amazing to have a great reputation, but where does reputation come from? Reputation comes from an experience that you've created for your clients and their feedback on dealing with you. That is what reputation is. It's feedback on how it felt to do business with you.

I have a real problem with “Reputation Management”

I have a real problem with something that's called “Reputation Management.” How do you manage a reputation? Reputation is word-of-mouth about your company. It's what people say about you on the street.

Understand that you have a reputation in two arenas. You have a reputation with the general public, and you also have a reputation within the industry. And I think that's important. We'll be talking about that in a later episode.

You can’t possibly control your reputation.

It’s important to understand who controls your reputation. You don't. You don't control your reputation. Your clients do. It’s in the hands of the people that do business with you. That's why I don't believe in reputation management. You can't control what other people will say about you.

Reputation is impossible for you to control. People will have different experiences. Can we talk about it? Can we work on those things? Can we make it better? Yes. But it will always be a game of influence. You must create the environment. You must create an experience. You must create a level of trust and transparency that gets you the reputation that you're looking for.

You must work on yourself, your business, and how it feels to do business with you.

You must work on you. You must work on your business. You must work on how it feels. If you want a better reputation, you must be more intentional about how you show up for your client, your team, and your community. That's the big thing.

So, I will ask you this week to look ahead, and say ask yourself, “What am I going to do differently this week to make a more positive impact that will influence people for a review that ultimately adds to your positive reputation?” This is super important.

For example, I was out this past Saturday training up in Maryland. Someone took a picture and put it online saying something nice about me. Someone else commented, “You know, I’ve never heard anything bad about Rick so he must be a nice guy.” You can't make that happen. It's how you show up that makes your reputation.

How did you show up today?

That's what I want you to be aware of today. How are you showing up? Are you getting up in the morning and being intentional about how you will show up each day? That's what I work on. It's not perfect by any stretch, but that is what I genuinely work on. How can I show up as my best self today? And how can I be aware of others that need help? Or are you just waking up and reacting the whole day? Is this you? You wake up, you grab your phone, look up emails and social media and then you are immediately on the react train. You're not driving the bus anymore. Your emotions are in control and everything is a reaction.

Your reputation is driven by the experience others have with you.

Think about how you can show up better. Think about how you can get your team to show up better. Think about how you can create something that makes it easy for someone to say something nice about you. Be more intentional. Your reputation is 100% driven by the experience others have with you. All it takes is one sharp phone call and that's a ding on the reputation. If you have an argument with a tech and then talk to a client, you end up with a tarnished reputation.

Be intentional!

Be intentional. You can't manage what's not in your control. They are in control. But there are some things you can manage. And that's what we're gonna be talking about over the next few episodes. So stay tuned.

God bless. Stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.

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