Every 10th episode I like to take a moment to address the incoming feedback and share a few insights that have come from that feedback. It always instigates me to make a change in some aspect of life, work, or business. And, feedback and reviews are such a big deal that some companies around the world are making poor business decisions just to claim some extra five star reviews. Tune in to learn more about that.
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Episode 30 Show Notes
Episode 30 Transcript
This is Rebecca Clark. Episode 30 Push back on the desk back. This’ll Podcast is for anyone that knows they haven’t yet found and offered up their best work but are compelled to seek it out and do it. Are you ready to move your desk? I’ve mentioned in prior episodes that I would like to use every 10th episode as a pushback on the desk episode, and this is a chance for me to take feedback I’ve received and share it with you. Clarify. Delve into one of the topics that have come up in the prior episodes. And in this particular episode, I wanted to talk about feedback and reviews again because this is so important when you are sharing your work and going into new territories, it’s so important to get that feedback from people that consume it or learn from it and grow from it to know whether or not it’s clear it’s meeting their needs or if there’s some work to d’oh. And I appreciate that I have so many candid friends and family in this process because I very much thrive with that. I know in the work environment, sometimes when you get candid feedback. It can be hard, but at the same time, I remember every time driving home going. Wait a second there, right? I need to look at that and make an improvement. Or it would force me into thinking about something more deeply, and I would have another creative idea as a result of someone not being a yes man and coming forward and telling me how they really felt. Now, before I get into some specific feedback and thoughts that I’ve received, I wanted to share that. In December, I was listening to the radio. There was a lot of different holiday music playing, and I wanted to be feeling and like I was in that spirit of the season. And so I turned on the radio more when I was driving, and there were some interesting discussions that came up, and one of them was related to this Amazon scam that was going on, and it was called brushing. Have you heard of that? I hadn’t heard of it until they mentioned it on the radio, and what it is is you end up receiving boxes of things that you did not order. So some people were getting some very expensive gifts like vacuums, humidifiers or a stereo, and they would call Amazon and say I did not order this, But the way the address was set up for return, it was the Amazon return address, and so there was nowhere for it to go. And so Amazon would say, Hey, you can just keep it This was starting to happen Maur and Maura and I guess a lot of people were calling into the radio station saying how this had happened to them and this is just locally right so that this is happening in a lot of places. Apparently, it’s a big thing in the United States right now, and it’s called brushing. So what is it? So there are these companies, many of them outside of the United States, that want to boost their Amazon ratings and reviews, And so what they’ll do is they somehow get your Amazon account information or your address. Whatever way they get it, they’re getting your information and they send it to you. But somehow they have an account set up on the other end where they are showing that it’s a legitimate purchase and that it’s five stars and they go in and write about the product and rave about it, and it looks like it was an actual customer that purchased it, so they don’t really care that you are getting free items from them. What they are trying to do is get a lot of great reviews so they can increase their chances to create more sales. And this is the dark side of feedback and review and rating systems, isn’t it? Because people will find ways to manipulate the system. And when I heard them talking about that, I thought it was so interesting because the crazy part is some people are actually benefiting from kidding piece gifts in the mail right? But the problem is, is there’s probably been a data breach somewhere where their information is now exposed. But these companies are willing to spend all of this time and money to get more reviews on their product because they so desperately want to show within the Amazon system. And this could be happening on other Web sites as well. They just they’re so desperate to show that people love and appreciate their product, and it’s interesting because it it shows how everyone wants to be accepted. We all want to think that people love what we’re doing, and we’re hoping that they will give us reviews or have positive feedback for us. The problem is, is the scam might help them for a little while. But at some point there’s really customers that are going to be going in and putting really reviews. And if the product’s not that great, it’s going to start emerging. And of course, in this process, when people call Amazon and tell them what’s happening because they’re worried they’re going to get charged Amazons collecting that data and they’re going to find out as well which of these companies are doing these scams. But isn’t that interesting? It’s called brushing. Look it up. There’s apparently lots of articles about it. I hadn’t heard of it before, but the lengths people will go to to make sure that they’re propped up with five star reviews and good feedback Now, I am not one of these people right now, even though I’m starting a business and I’ve started this podcast is part of that. I know that they’re gonna be very few people giving me reviews out the gate and I’m okay with that. And the beauty of that is I know people by name who have given reviews, or at least bi they’re handle right, and some of them I can figure it out, and some people just have their real name there. But I am able to see who’s doing this, and I can choose to take extra effort to ensure that these people know that I’m very grateful for the time they took to give me a review. Now I cannot see who gives me stars like on the podcast and stuff. I can only see the written comments. So I’m very grateful that I received two written reviews on the podcast in the last two weeks from BYU Poodles and Alicia See, And what I loved about the reviews is they both commented on the length of the podcast, which I understand. Mine go from 15 minutes to 35 with an average of probably 20 to 25 minutes and some podcast go for a couple hours and you’ve got to set aside a lot more space for those. But they both also mentioned kind of the same concept, and I wanted to share this with you, BYU Boodle says. It also inspires you without making you feel guilty about where you are or aren’t in your life. And Alicia, see mentioned that it actually makes me feel like I am on the right track in my own entrepreneurial path, and they wrote other comments as well. But what struck me about those is Oh, that’s interesting that I thought that stayed with them after listening was kind of the thought that oh, I’m okay where I’m at, I can improve, but I can do it. It’s possible it’s not beyond my grasp. And that’s extremely valuable feedback to me, because now I have that in my head. I want to make sure that when I share something that I am sharing it from a place of yes, we all want to improve and grow, but it’s not unattainable to seek. It’s all attainable. Weaken, take baby steps. We can make slight adjustments in our habits. We can think slightly differently and get some different results. And that feedback actually helped me. It helped me be reminded that I, too, can take small steps to improve that if I get overwhelmed. No problem. I just need to step back a little, look at it from a different angle, take a little step. I can make the changes I need to make to succeed. And I can continue to share my lessons learned and imperfections in the podcast with listeners. So they know that I, too, am going through these changes of thinking, these changes of habits, these changes of goals and perspectives. And so that was very valuable for me to read that feedback and go, Oh, now that’s an interesting thought to get from these messages. I also wanted to thank Kevin and Anthony and Renee for sharing the podcast episodes. It’s so awesome when you wake up in the morning and you get these little dings on your phone showing that someone re shared something you created on Lincoln or Facebook or Twitter. Am I the only one that feels that way? I mean, I’m not expecting it, and so it’s super cool when it happens, and maybe that process will connect me to another person who will listen and love it and share something, and then I will get to find out what they’re doing and be able to work with them on something in the future or to start appreciating content that they have to offer. Now. One of the wonderful things about receiving these reviews and putting yourself out there is also to receive feedback from some of these same individuals. And I know Brett wrote to me this week, and he is someone that had given me a written review on the podcast, and he said, Hey, I wanted to give you some honest and open feedback I love the podcast, but there’s a few things that, quite honestly are annoying to me. And of course, you read that. You’re like, Whoa, what’s this gonna be? But it was really helpful feedback, and I know that I had received some of this feedback early on, and I’ve talked about it in some of the early episodes where he’s trying to get the sound right and trying to figure out the music. And maybe I’m still not quite there. And so hiss feedback about hey, shortened the music, get the sound right with the music in the words and everything. So it’s not jarring if you have it up all the way, and then suddenly this is this blast of sound. I thought, Oh, you know what? I think I still need to work on that. Even if he hasn’t listened to my latest episodes, Maybe he listened to the 1st 15 or so which there were a lot of different sound issues, which I haven’t figured out how to re upload because of the service I’m using. But the minute he shared that, I had a new idea that I hadn’t had before. And that is that I can still use my cool music. Sorry, folks, if you don’t like the music, I really like it. But I have mentally figured out Oh, I can start it sooner and have it quieter and still have it crescendo right where I wanted to. But it’ll make that whole section maybe 10 or 15 seconds instead of 30 right, so that you’re getting to the content faster. And so I’m gonna work on that. And so hopefully you hear that in this episode because I’m trying it out on this episode, and that’s an immediate improvement I’m gonna make. And maybe I had thought of that idea at the beginning, and I decided against it for some reason. But at this point receiving that feedback makes me want to change it and try it a different way, because I get it. If you’re listening to the same person over and over, you kind of wish there was a place where you could just select a marker that goes okay, just forward me to their content. I already know their little upfront spiel and so this was great feedback. He also brought up a thought that I have struggled with, as I’ve started this podcast, and that is right in the context of this review and feedback and ratings topic. And that is I have so many people in my life that have influenced me. And I do want to highlight them all in different ways as I go through these podcasts, because all the lessons learned and stories in my life all include different people that have taught me things I’ve learned lessons with, and I’ve only been able to share a few of those to date. And there’s some things where I’m kind of chomping at the bit to do certain episodes because I want to highlight what certain people have said, and I’m just not there yet because I’ll think, No, I have to do this other episode First all these little mental requirements we put on ourselves and then I think, Oh, maybe I should do two episodes this week because I really want to get that information out and acted kind of slow down and go. Okay, The whole world is not waiting for that episode. This’d is just a expectation in your mind. But when Brett brought up the thought about, you know, sharing different experiences from different people and how he has had certain experiences with Mia’s well, it reminded me of how important it is to constantly name drop in good ways, right? I’m not going to be named dropping a ton of famous people and hoping to get any of their attention. I’m talking about name dropping people that air on this life journey with you people that you’ve had experiences with, people that have taught you something. People that have shared resource is with you and making sure people know those people share sharing what they dio sharing and podcasts, introducing people to other people that think in similar ways, or would benefit from someone who thinks differently than they do and that they’re open toe having those kinds of conversations. And so thank you, Brett, for your feedback. I loved it, and I’m excited to implement all the ideas you shared. I wanted to share that. I have this six week program that I’m piloting in the February March time frame, and I kind of put it out there to my very small email list and to a couple of friends and to my move your desk Facebook group and said, Hey, I’m looking for a few volunteers for this and it’s it’ll take like, two hours a week. It’s very self paced. I’ll deliver some training. People can call until a live call if they want. Or they could just listen to the recording and they’ll roll up their sleeves and work on creating certain frameworks to help them do their best work. And I snuck a peek into my survey for my set up for people to sign up, and I was so excited because it’s a very small group. I want to keep it under 10 people of possible five. A few more volunteers. I may accept that, but I looked at the names of every person that signed up, and I happened to know them in some way. And I was so excited because these people are strong people, strong personalities, lots of life experience and work experience and are just very candid and open with feedback. And I’m excited because I know it’s a pilot, right? So by very definition, I know there’s going to be changes after this pilot because it’s not perfect. It’s the first time I’m offering it. But to think that I’m going through this pilot with people that air, candid and open and strong with their thoughts tells me I’m gonna have a great product at the end because hopefully they’ll rip it apart and tell me what’s great about it, where it needs improvement, where my focus is off and I will be able to offer up my best work because of people who are willing to open their mouth and share with me feedback. And I will be excited, too. Get to know them more through this process and make sure that I do what I can to promote the work. They’re doing all of this to say that it’s so important to give reviews to give feedback to be open to accepting feedback and determine how you can implement it. And I find all the time that when I opened my mind implemented, I have new ideas and better ideas and creativity that wouldn’t have come without that candid response from people that are willing to share with me. And so what this boils down to on a daily basis is take those moments. Make it a habit to take a moment every day, Thio respond to someone or share some work that they’re doing and give feedback and then tell someone if you’ve implemented their feet back and see what happens, thank you for all of your pushing back on the desk. I’m grateful for people that continually take a moment in their busy lives to share with me. Their thoughts. Have a great day. Thank you for listening to the move your desk show. Take a minute and go to move your desk dot com and sign up for the weekly email. And remember, it’s not spam, but it may show up in that part of your inbox. Talk to you next Monday
