How to Handle Criticism

How to handle criticism? Use it to grow your business!

This video is all about showing you how to flip the script and instead of accepting that the haters are gonna hate or justifying criticism as jealousy, using it as a powerful tool to level up your business.

We give you two key questions to ask next time you receive some criticism which will help you decide if, and how, you should act on it and whether or not it has the potential to actually help you, rather than hold you back!

👉 Watch this epic video!

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In this video we give you some strategies for handling criticism, especially in business.

This is really important because the most successful entrepreneurs often do stuff that attracts criticism, and how you handle that can either be a huge success factor or detrimental to your growth.

So let’s look at how to use criticism to actually grow your business.

Use criticism to grow

Getting criticised is NOT fun. It makes you feel a bit crap about yourself, and can dampen your day.

We’ve been there – we’ve had the snotty emails, nasty comments, the downright mean emails. We’ve been called copycats and unprofessional, had things said behind our backs, and ruffled some feathers in our time.

And this video isn’t about dismissing these people as jealous with snappy quotes like ‘haters gonna hate’ – nope. Instead we’re going to flip the script and look at what to do, to actually use criticism to grow.

Because often, worrying about the potential of getting criticised alone can hold people back from doing what you need to. If you want to be a thought leader, if you want to make an impact on the world, you will get some push back at some point.

How to handle criticism – Two key questions

Next time you’re wondering how to handle criticism, here are two things we want you to ask yourself…

1. Is the right person criticising you?

In the past we’ve listen to too much Taylor Swift and dismissed critics as haters or super jealous, but the problem with doing that is that it can often cause you to be annoyed or angry with these people, which again is another negative emotion that you don’t need.

So instead of getting annoyed, or writing them off as jealous, instead think about whether or not that person is the right person to be criticising you…

Let us give you an example. We opened up ATOMICON 2019 with a whole presentation about how to get over ‘following your fears’ as an entrepreneur or marketer, because often the things that are going to make the biggest impact are scary… and we need to know what to do about that.

The talk went down an absolute storm, people actually told us that it has changed their life! 😲

However, one or two people who’d seen that talk just didn’t get it, and let us know. Here’s one quote from an email we received:

‘By the end of the talk, I was just willing you to get on with it and make a point’

That stung.

This talk has both changed lives and caused that reaction from someone. What the hell?!

Here’s the thing… when we thought about why that person was criticising us, it made sense…. that person is an employee, is paid a wage, and doesn’t fully understand how scary business can be when you are doing it by yourself.

That talk wasn’t 100% meant for that person, and so the message didn’t land with them, which is probably why they didn’t like it… and that’s OK.

Be happy with changing your audience’s life, and not being relatable to people who aren’t your audience… and so when the criticism comes, you can make a judgement on whether that person has a point in their situation.

2. Is this criticism actually worth acting on?

We don’t know it all, you don’t know it all… and there are people who have been there done that and got the t-shirt who are going to criticise you… and sometimes we need to open ourselves up to that.

We shouldn’t act on all criticism, and some we should shrug off, but how do we know which criticism to listen to?

Well, we have 2 criteria:

👉 Do we respect this person’s opinion?

👉 Do we KNOW that this person wants the best for us?

If the person giving us that criticism falls into either of those camps, we will use that criticism to grow… you do not want to fill your business contact circle with ‘YES people’ who tell you that you’re wonderful and the world is rosey… you want people who will push you, and tell you that you either messed up, or you could be better.

If you have a business mentor or mastermind who only tells you that you’re awesome and your ideas are great, then you need to go find another person or group.

Remember too that some people don’t like giving constructive criticism unless it’s invited

So tell the people that you respect and whose opinion you value… “look, if you ever think I didn’t do something great or could do better, please feel free to let me know.”

Now guys, there are always going to be people who want to shut you down, or shut you up, or take you down a peg or two… those aren’t your people, and when you get that criticism you should definitely ignore it

But first, ask yourself these 2 things…

⭐️ Is this person right to be criticising me? If so, good job!
⭐️ Is this criticism worth acting on? If so, do it!

We’re learning more and more about how to act on criticism as we grow and get more of it, so we’d love to hear your thoughts… What do you do when you get criticised? Let us know in the comments.