Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.
- Joel A. Barker

Hhhmmm…someone just called me Simon Cowell.  Trying hard to not take it personally, I calmly asked her to explain…

She continued her timely American Idol comparison…

Janelle, everyone knows the sites out there that are the ‘Randy’ sites – looks cool, gives people nicknames that makes them sound cool, and possibly even have cool content, but never gives them much more than that to really grow a successful business.  There isn’t an emotional investment in seeing the members succeed.  Then there are the ‘Paula’ sites which are the worst.  Everyone loves getting compliments and praise, but if there is nothing constructive there to help you grow your business, then I am simply paying you to be a ‘yes’ person in my life – a cheerleader.  Not everything can always be so wonderful and fun and cute.  But you Janelle, you are like Simon Cowell…we don’t always like what you say and we don’t always like how you say it, but we definitely know that your statements are the ones that make or break our businesses.  Watching the contestants on the show, their faces turned respectively to each judge…waiting for Randy to call them a ‘dog’, and then for Paula to compliment their outfit, and then for Simon to deliver the words on if they really are heading down the path to Success or not.  Any feedback they get from him they know is worth gold, literally.  If Randy or Paula offer any advice, the contestant may or may not take it, but they KNOW if they choose to not take Simon’s advice, their singing career won’t be moving further.  Janelle your OSI Rock Stars site is that way.   You offer us the cheerleading, you make us feel cool, but what you really do is offer strong constructive advice on moving forward in our business.  I just wanted to thank you for caring so much about us that you are willing to be like Simon Cowell and ‘booed’ for sticking to your guns and providing us wise and brilliant and right on the money coaching.  I know that all of us have the utmost respect for you and your passion to see us succeed.  Please know that, just like with Simon, you do make us squirm for putting us under the microscope and calling us on certain things, but that in our heart we know you are right and only want to see us be the most you know we can be.  So thanks for being like Simon.

LOL.  I love it – I think.

Here is another great email I just received.  I love CJ’s Success words and mindset.:

Janelle, thanks for your words about “quit the sniveling”  … This is the time to rise to the top, and only those that choose to find the path to the top will win!   We almost never know how much further we have to climb to get the top of the road, could be a few feet, or a few miles, and how far you get every day is not as important as making progress on the journey.   When adversity hits (or should we say the current economic “slowdown”) I try to ask myself, okay what is the lesson I can learn from this one…looking for the silver lining instead of feeling bad and down trodden about the situation is not only a happier place to reside, but offers a smoother road to the top!

I always go back to my tape player (or CD player) and listen to my favorites…. first and foremost Napoleon Hill, then Lou Tice, and now I’ve added the Secret to my list…I come back inspired and full of energy to “getter done!”

Thanks so very much
CJ

THEN there are the emails coming in about the feedback updates on eBay.  eGads people, you can’t be serious.  Are you really ok with wasting this much time on fussing about .1%?  (I’m not and am kind of annoyed that I have now lost the 3 minutes it has taken to write this part of the newsletter).

Is your goal to make money selling products or to have a perfect feedback score…are you going to spend your time today whining on the boards or making your eBay Store better/sourcing another product/learning how to do a blog.  As I told one usually very brilliant and Success minded individual who got caught up in the feedback changes… A perfect feedback score won’t pay the bills, putting your valuable time and energy into selling products will.  K, I’m done…but one of our more patient and understanding and brilliant Rock Stars responded in a fashion much better than I am willing to do right now.  Thanks Dany for your common sense approach to the feedback changes:

THE CRANKY CUSTOMER RETURNS – A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON FEEDBACK

Some time ago, at an eBay University talk, I heard Janelle say that she gets suspicious of sellers with thousands and thousands of positives and not a single negative or neutral feedback. She wasn’t advocating that you go looking for negatives. Of course not. She was encouraging sellers to keep feedback in perspective.

We are business people. Feedback scores aren’t gold stars on a grade school report card. They are guideposts for shoppers. Potential buyers want to know, “Can this seller be trusted to deliver?” If 99.9% of previous customers say yes - that’s good enough for most people. (Conversely, when 12,368 people out of 12,368 people say, “This seller is no mere mortal – she is a veritable Goddess of eCommerce to me!” – sensible people, ask, “Who’s kidding who?”)

I believe that all the sturm and drang over feedback is exacerbated by the lack of face-to-face contact. As any retailer, from Nordstrom’s CEO to a 7-11 clerk, will tell you: you cannot please everyone. Ever. No matter what you do or how hard you try. Someone is always unhappy and - this is key - it is usually not about you.

We are all the center of our own little universes. If I spend a godawful day in traffic and come home to find that FedEx left my package on the ground and it is wet and soggy and the dog scatters the packing peanuts all over the house - well, I will not be a happy camper and I do NOT want to hear about how much YOU care about YOUR feedback score.

I’m pretty sure I could get thousands of glowing feedbacks overnight by selling $5.00 bills for $1.00. I could probably get straight 5 DSRs as well. I could even corner the market! But I’d still be an idiot. I’m not in business to burn money. Know your goals and work relentlessly towards them. Obsessing about a few unflattering feedback ratings will not create success.

Feedback is saturated with emotion, for both the buyer and the seller. Emotion is extremely powerful, but it is neither right nor wrong. Don’t be sucked in to an emotional minefield. Don’t be so overwhelmed by your reaction to someone else’s emotion that you to take your eye off the ball. Feedback is not what you are in business for. Feedback is just one indicator among many of the health and success of your business. Learn from it and move on. Don’t lose sight of your goals.

–

Dany Byrne

D Byrne Associates

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