217: The Power of Words
Brought to you by Courtney Cecal from Palmetto Scoopers
Summary
Sometimes, words are hard. They hold immense power and can make or break relationships. We discuss how to harness those positive words and phrases to propel your pet business into clearly communicating what you want. We also talk about the role of words in how we perceive ourselves and overcome hard times. Then, pet business coach Natasha O’Banion talks about the fear of staff stealing clients.
Topics on this episode:
Words and clients
Words and business
Words and you
Ask a Pet Biz Coach
Main takeaway: The words we choose to use in our lives and business, go a long way to creating the life we ultimately want to lead and the business we want to run.
Links:
Courtney Cecal from Palmetto Scoopers
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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
clients, words, business, services, pet, language, scoopers, updates, confessional, consistent messaging, fault, people, longer, kid, talking, uplifting, perceive, importance, communicate, set
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Natasha
Meghan 00:17
Hi, I'm Meghan.
00:18
I'm Collin and this is petsitter. confessional
Meghan 00:20
an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter. Hello, welcome to Episode 217. Hello, we appreciate you listening every week and if you feel we've earned it, we would love a positive review on Apple iTunes. If you listen there, we want
Collin 00:41
to thank our sponsors this week, Palmetto scoopers and our Patreon supporters like Alicia and Sherry, thank you so much for your continued support. If you'd like to learn more about becoming a Patreon you can go to pet sir confessional comm forward slash support, we received several comments and feedback about last week's episode on the book profit First, it seems like everyone else thinks it's quote, not for them, just like us, and that it only makes sense as you grow and expand. Which means that if you are planning on growing and expanding, it's a good idea to start implementing that system now. So you don't have to play catch up later and try and redo all of the books. And if you have any more feedback on episode 215, let us know.
Meghan 01:21
So today we're talking about the power of words. But before that, Collin has a very interesting story, a brush with the law that he would like to relay
Collin 01:31
Oh, my putting me on the spot here. I guess this is a lesson in always be closing. I got pulled over for making an improper right turn and moving into the left lane without using my blinker. And when the cop asked me where I was headed, I said I'm gonna go do a walk. And he was like what I said, my wife and I own funky bunch pet care where a dog walking and pet sitting company in the area, we provide Trump's Walker, pet care for all your animals.
Meghan 02:07
I think he was also confused because this was nine o'clock at night.
Collin 02:10
Yeah, he was very confused of what why I was going in to do that. And I had explained Yeah, it's a service that we provide for not every client, but just that this, this client really requested it and it was fine with our schedule. And then he told me about an awful experience that he had with and he boarded their dog, that they took it to a kennel and it came back home missing its ear. And he think it's it's because it was put into his shared kennel space when he had requested it to be private. And so I not that I almost gave him a business card. But I did sympathize with him and say, well, that's why we provide the services that we do and hope that he had better care in the future.
Meghan 02:58
And you got off with a warning, not a ticket
03:00
hi did I so life lesson, pitch your services to everybody who you talk to and you never know.
Meghan 03:11
So that goes right into the words that we use mean something and have an effect on people. And when we say the power of words, we mean, you know this industry is a lot about the pets and caring for the pets. But it's also predominantly communicating with clients and making sure that they are happy and using language that is positive for your company, and using language that uplifts your company and presents it in the best possible light.
Collin 03:39
So there's a lot of different ways that we communicate in our business. We communicate through our updates through our social media. We also communicate through newsletters if we send them and we communicate also through our website, and even directly to our clients. Meaning that when they go and talk to others, they are like a byproduct of what we are saying to them. And while we can't obviously control what they say, if they are hearing consistent messaging from us, it's going to be much easier for them to communicate to others about our business and be getting the messages across that we want them to.
Meghan 04:10
And then to piggyback off of that there are really three big categories for the power of words, obviously the client, your business, and then there's the self as well and putting our mental health first. When we talk with our clients, there is sometimes a tendency to say, I'm sorry, but unless it's legitimately your fault, unless you were truly late for an appointment or at you know at a set time or you accidentally left a door unlocked. Unless it's specifically your fault. You should not be starting off the text with I'm sorry, blah, blah, blah, or saying I'm sorry at all unless you are apologizing for something that you did. If you didn't do it or something wasn't your fault. You are then taking responsibility when you shouldn't. And I think that impulse comes from a need to really make sure that everything is okay to kind of Please the client and make sure our clients are happy. And obviously we want that. But saying I'm sorry, using that kind of language really puts you on the backfoot. And makes the client think that you as the pet sitter did something wrong?
Collin 05:13
Well, unfortunately, I think legally, it can also be put into some situations where it may backfire on you where it may come across where you have admitted fault in a scenario. And so your insurance might not cover you in those instances or other legal concerns. So there is more than just the how it comes across to your client. Basically, when we say I'm sorry, and we didn't do anything wrong, we are placing ourselves subservient to that person as a way to appease them and make sure that they don't get angry at us. It's where a lot of that comes from. And unfortunately, what that does is it means that we start training that client really bad behaviors that it's harder and harder to get out of, the longer we keep them on.
Meghan 05:54
And for example, if you have set office hours, and a client texts you at 10pm, which is outside of your office hours, you text them the next morning and say sorry for the delay. Instead of saying that you can say thank you for your patience, my office hours are blank, and therefore I don't respond outside of those hours. Because if you continually say I'm sorry for this, and it's not really your fault, you know, the more you apologize, the less powerful that your apology becomes. So use the word sorry, sparingly and really only when it applies to an instance that it is actually your fault.
Collin 06:33
Another common phrase that we see and have actually used in the past is something like what works best for you. Usually this is in terms when trying to schedule a meet and greet or a service. The problem here is that the majority of times, whatever works best for them actually doesn't work best for you. And we're left trying to change our schedule. So we're putting the power in decision making into somebody else's hands around our time, our schedule, and our business, which is what we never want to do. We need to be the ones that are setting the expectations and scheduling these things. So instead of saying what works best for you, say, can you do Tuesday at one or Tuesday at five, giving them options that actually work for you is going to help them decide. And again, it puts this power puts this authority back on you and your business as the decision maker. And as the one who's actually going to allow us to move forward.
Meghan 07:26
This is actually something that we use for our kids as well. A lot of parenting books will say, give your kid two options. And obviously that you've both approved of. So you would say for snack time do you want the apple or the pear, you know, they're both healthy, and they're both good choices, but it still gives the kid the option from the ones that you gave. So it's your business, you run it the way you want to you have set hours and hours you're able to meet.
Collin 07:53
This next one is something that I actually use probably way too frequently. Let's say that the client forgot to mention that they needed you to pick up a package at their house, and you do it and in and they say thank you so much for bringing in the package. What I will usually respond with is something like no problem or no worries. What this does is it diminishes the effort that you did, it takes away your decision making. It takes away the initiative that you had in that moment to bring it in to do something unprompted for your client. So instead of saying no worries, respond with always happy to help. This shows the intent, this shows the professionalism, this shows the kind of service that you're going to provide that you are there to help them and that you are always going to be doing that while you're serving them.
Meghan 08:48
A pet peeve of mine is the word just and whenever I type it out, I immediately delete it. Because it is not something that we should be using with our clients. The word just really diminishes the context that follows this word. It's really a protector word. And what that means is a word that softens what you are trying to say when you say quote, I'm just following up on my text, you are downplaying the importance of your text and why you are sending it in the first place. You are softening your request for a response. Or you can say instead of just checking in or just wanted to or just checking, you can say when can I expect an update on x? It's important to rephrase these things. So our business doesn't look soft. We don't appear that we can be pushed around. And our client knows where we stand. We are firm in our responses in what we tell the client and there's no wishy washiness about it or you can say instead of just checking in or just wanted to or just checking, you can say when can I expect an update on X. Another common phrase is Does that make sense and a lot of times This is used in when trying to explain our pricing or our services, or really our policies, you can explain something and then say, does that make sense? Instead of saying that you say, let me know if you have any questions?
Collin 10:14
Well, and what this does is it doesn't insult the intelligence of the person that you're communicating with. Saying does that make sense implies that you think the person might not have understood it? Instead when we say let me know if you have any questions, it's open ended, there are no assumptions, or preconceived notions or biases on our plate are coming from us when we say that and then that way it still opens the door for them to ask follow up questions without them feeling like we are demeaning them or talking down to them. Someone that always makes sense is today's sponsor Palmetto scoopers. 2020 showed us the importance of having a diversified business. As we take on new clients, there are many opportunities to add services and value packages to them. coordinator owner of Palmetto scoopers wants to help you be number one with your clients. Number two, Courtney is passionate about helping others Excel with a poop scooping service. What tools and training do you need? What do you do with all of that poop? There's a link in our show notes for you to check out to learn more about getting started in pet waste removal. And let Courtney get you started on the right foot today.
Meghan 11:20
Now let's talk about the business side of words. So we need to be using consistent messaging across all platforms. This means that your newsletter, your updates your social media, and for your social media, this doesn't mean post literally the same thing on every social media platform. I mean, we are guilty of this, but it isn't necessarily the best approach. And we talked more about this in our social media Episode 188.
Collin 11:45
And when we're talking about consistent messaging, when you say you love something means the next time you talk about that topic or that item, you should talk about loving it in that same way. This way, there's no confusion in what you're talking about, or messaging when it comes to pickup or drop off times or messaging when it comes to your policies, using the same kind of language or verbiage repeatedly will only enhance and really drive home the point that you're trying to make, so that there's no confusion with your clients. And one way to avoid confusion with your clients is to have well spelled and well structured sentences and wording. So always reread what you write. Because autocorrect can be a pain. And I'm speaking from a lot of experience here. I'm sorry, Megan,
Meghan 12:30
especially with those updates at the end of the 30 minute visit or whatever when you're trying to kind of rush out the door or sit in your car and trying to formulate a quick response with pictures. And it can be really simple and easy to forget a word or misspell a word as it is. But it is really important to reread it before you send it.
Collin 12:51
And that includes as part of being professional is using punctuation. So what we're trying to do here is make our high school English teacher proud of us. And when we're sending these updates are the social media posts were using words that are going to make our clients feel good, they're going to connect with us in certain situations. And that's pretty
Meghan 13:08
easy, because everybody loves cute puppies and cute kitties. So it's really easy to be uplifting and use words that make others feel good,
Collin 13:19
right or if there's certain vernacular or things that you know that your clients use, or are used to seeing. Use that in your posts. And obviously there are ways that can do this work can come across as fake or phony. So we really need to avoid that and still be authentic to ourselves. But if you want to say y'all go ahead and say y'all, cuz that's who you are. And that's going to connect with the clients that you want.
Meghan 13:40
Yeah, and if your ideal client is a middle aged mom with kids, and you are a middle aged mom with kids, use language and your social media posts and your email newsletters and your website that empathizes with that with her, always using positive language though, we are around awesome pets all day, we should always be positive in our language when speaking to clients and potential clients. We shouldn't be putting others down. And this includes the neighbor kid down the street who is doing a dog walk for $5. You know, we need to be all uplifting each other especially in this pet care space.
Collin 14:17
And anytime that we are writing ads, whether that's for our services, or whether that's hiring, find words and language that's going to instill trust, positivity that's going to get across the honesty of your business and even joy that you have in the work that you do. This is what we're talking about here is really using words and messaging in our business. This is part of our brand. The words and vernacular that we use are going to connect with our ideal clients. It's going to set the tone for the interactions that our business has with other people as they come to know and understand who we are. So the language that we use really is what goes out before us that is part of our brand, how people perceive the business. And that's really going to help us when we get that right.
Meghan 15:09
As any life coach will tell you, the words that you use mean something, they are powerful, there is a mental health side effect to the words that you use, they can build up or tear down, they can be positive or negative. Importantly, though, they set the tone for how you perceive yourself.
Collin 15:27
I've seen a lot of studies about the importance of words and the importance of self value. And I think a few of the ones that have been really interesting to me have been when they have asked either endurance athletes or students as part of the study, to run incredible distances, these long, long exertions of energy and time and effort. They asked one group to repeat positive affirmations about themselves and their ability, and another one was exposed to derogatory statements. And usually the ones that had positive affirmations did better or at least persisted longer. Well, why is that? Well, but they are surrounding themselves with uplifting thoughts about their abilities about their motivations, they were able to push through that paid in the struggle. The words that we say about ourselves are like mirrors for what's going on inside our hearts and inside our minds. So if we perceive ourselves to be a loser, to be no good, something that we'll never get, or that I can't compete with others, saying things like that will only set you up to see the failures in your life. So that when you do fail, because let's be honest, we all do in some form or fashion. But when we do fail, it's just another notch of evidence for us to believe that what we think about ourselves is true. Instead, when we say things like, I can do this, I'm not perfect, but I'm trying, I'm just as good as everybody else, or better.
Meghan 16:53
And you can even say something that our kids learn in school is, I can if I just try, right,
Collin 16:59
this brings focus on to what you can do. Megan, you mentioned several times about the importance of having a positive spin on our language that we use, by focusing on something that you can do versus focusing on what you can't do, this opens up the possibilities that you're going to be taking, this helps keep you motivated to keep going, then there isn't anything really magical about speaking certain words, like they are spells or incantations, but it does change chemicals in your brains. And it is an intentional act that you are doing to be different in the tone and perception of yourself that you actually have control over, that you can speak words around yourself, to influence how you perceive yourself, which will then influence how you interact with the world and run your business. And everything else that we've been talking about today.
Meghan 17:49
In the end, the words that we say, and the words that we typed the clients and updates and newsletters and everything they matter.
Collin 17:56
And really more importantly, the words and that you say and type two and about yourself matter even more, because ultimately that is what's going to set the tone of how you interact with others. We're always going to be professional, we're always going to be treating people with the utmost, utmost respect, and using language that is not going to offend them. And we need to be doing that even much more so to ourselves. So when we're responding to a client who's unhappy about services or something went wrong, using appropriate language to address that, when we fail in ways in our business or personal life, using appropriate language to address ourselves as well. Words are very important. They do have power, they influence people, they tear up, they tear down, and we have agency over which one of those we're going to choose to do when interacting with our business and with ourselves too.
Meghan 18:48
What are some words or phrases that you have used that you've pressed Delete on and instead you wrote something else? We would love to hear that you can send those to feedback at petsitter confessional comm or hit us up on Facebook and Instagram at pet sitter confessional pet business coach Natasha opionion is going to answer the question how do I overcome fear of staff stealing clients?
Natasha 19:12
Absolutely. So number one, I would say that's just a scarcity mindset. We all know there's there's tons of cats and dogs around here for everybody. I don't really do non compete I do non solicit obviously they can't solicit our current clients. But if I'm teaching you a skill and you're with me and you've learned something, I would never expect you not to go work for another software company. Right? It's like we got it. We got to think about people. If you're working for this software company, you're training them and you've learned this new skill. Who am I to say that you can't now take that skill somewhere else you're bettering yourself you're bettering your family so number one, I would never do that I would never stand in the way of someone's growth because that doesn't make sense. But that comes from scarcity like oh my god, they're gonna take my clients are gonna do the exact process. I do. Do you How many pet sitters follow me from me just being on this podcast? Do you know how many websites look just like my website? Do you know how many surfaces look just like my services? Now that I'm out here? Do you know how many programs look just like my programs? Tons tons? I look at people's lingo down, I said, Oh, that sounds a little bit like my lingo, because I speak differently. And I already know that, but who am I to say, Oh, God, now I'm on this podcast, people are gonna be seeing what I'm doing, they're gonna be taking? Of course they are. Of course they are. But guess what, there's more where that came from. So we want to remove that scarcity mindset. Now, for your company. In particular, I don't have my clients talking to my staff, they all work through our app, they get their posts, while ports well, so there's no need for communication. Number one, I do that because the buck always stops with the business. And if my walkers are handling munication from 15 clients a day, there's definitely going to be a ball drop somewhere. It's just not realistic. So we let our staff know that we all were single hats, we have a back of the house team that can help out update notes. And we make sure our clients know, hey, don't leave notes on the table. Don't leave notes on the refrigerator, because we want full transparency. No matter who comes in your house. We want them to see that what's going on present day stuff, no need for our staff to actually even build that relationship with our client to even steel. Half the time my clients would call me and say, Hey, Natasha, they kind of pitched me something my clients would actually call me and probably tell me, they've done it before. So we don't have our walkers and our sitters talking to our staff, they come in, they do the job, they follow the app, they do their report, and they go home, there's not even that relationship. That happens a lot with contractors. When you're using contractors versus employees, there isn't a lot you control, there isn't a lot that you cannot say you do have to have the contractor talking to the clients. And when the contractor is building the relationship with your client. Yeah, it's a chance I could go ahead and take the client. But guess what, guys, I don't want that client. That's not a client that I want to service anyway, if you're so quick to jump ship, pay when they leave you hanging, don't come back my love. Bye bye. So listen, there's more where that came from no need for us to, you know, hold on the clients like we owe them something. Clients are literally using you for a service. When they no longer need that service. They're gonna stop using you. When my kid graduates from the first grade, she's going to the second grade, I'm no longer going to be in contact with her first grade teacher. much as I love her all year long. She's been amazing. She's been calling me emailing me. I send her apples. I send her Teacher Appreciation. But guess what? When my kid goes to the second grade, we're done with her. That is services guys.
Meghan 23:02
If you would like to work one on one with Natasha and have her coach you through your business, you can work with her at start scale sale calm and use the code PSC 20 for 15% off. We appreciate you tuning in this week. And every week. If you have any topic suggestions or specific people that you would like us to interview including yourself, please let us know. We want to just unite the pet care community so we can lift everybody up and raise the standard. We also want to thank our sponsors, Palmetto scoopers and our wonderful Patreon members. We hope you join us next time. Thank you.
23:36
Bye
