Well not really that dramatic but if Destiny is the direction you take yourself then this post is relevant 😊
I have been seeing a fair bit of communications about Owner training, Owner benefits and Owner communication styles.
So what is an owner and are you one ?
**There is a couple of definitions, **
you may be a
- A Website Site Owner, and this may include either a script-based customer site, a WordPress based Content management site or even just a plain HTML based site that is primarily static with occasional updates and hopefully a Lead capture form
- A List Owner – you are building an email list and therefore you are the owner of that list and a Lead Capture Form
- An Affiliate promoter which makes you an Owner, you are the owner of your own business and attempting to get sign ups to the programs you use.
There are many more types of owners that are there, but the list above is simplified for purpose of communicating in this post
Whichever way that you are an owner there is an obligation of you to communicate with your customer base, you are after all wanting them to listen to you and sign up for and or purchase programs you recommend.
So when you are sending out emails to your customers or even talking to them in chat, be engaging, ask them what they are wanting, what they hope to get from engagement with you, be reciprocal and show them the level of engagement you expect from them
I saw a post from Ian Ballantyne, Telegram I think, (I will no doubt be corrected if it wasn't and isn't ) where he was giving some advice to someone about how to get people to sign up to your programs using chats in website, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, any form of social communication.
He spoke about showing a genuine interest in them primarily, engage in conversation, ask them what is working for them and listen and observe, sign up for their programs and have a look, give honest critique about what they suggest and then start suggesting some of the things that work for you. They will be more likely to listen to what you are suggesting, and you have built a relationship with another person that is based on Mutual respect.
Remember that if you are engaging with people that they are important and that if you are not prepared to find out about them then why would you expect them to find out about you.
You are an owner; you have an obligation and duty of care to recognise the value in your customer vase and to reciprocate that value through engaging communication that places their wants and needs first. After all, they will look to you for advice and direction if they are comfortable with who you are, just as you have shown your comfortability with them by listening and following their advise and direction.
We are after all a community, and community is a collective, it is the collective that sets the ideology and directions that a community follows.
And communities can be harsh at times, do something that they do not like and the word can spread like wildfire.
**A little story, **
Years ago (Makes me sound Old, Back in My Day) I lived in the Bush (Australian for in the wild, trees, forest, scrub, but not the Outback, which is further out where there is nothing) any way I lived ona road that was 50kilometers long, a close knit community with only approximately 25 families along the road. There was a ridge road just near where I lived and the young boys from the valley over used to ride their trail bikes to the road that I lived on and catch the school bus every morning.
Everyone knew everyone and their bikes were perfectly safe.
One day, I heard one of the boys bikes start up and head down the road, hmm, I thought, Ben must be heading to a mates house,
I could hear the school bus coming, the bus had a horn that used to blast out as it was a very narrow, winding dirt road that we lived on.
About 5 minutes later the bus came around the corner and Ben jumped off at my place and yelled out, that was my bike that just went down the road.
I lived with no electrickery or phone, but the neighbor down the road had a phone, so jumped in my car and went to neighbors house, I rang another community member way down the road and asked them to create a roadblock to stop the bike from getting out the valley. Community was strong and we would do anything for each other so a request that we knew would be upheld.
We then headed down the road, we got to the roadblock and they had not seen the bike at all, so we retraced the steps. Eventually we found tracks leading into a property we knew had just been sold and followed the tracks even further and found hidden behind some trees and bushes the bike and the person who had taken it, with spray can in hand in the process of respraying.
We confronted the bloke and took the bike back, he was flummoxed as to how we found him, I explained that this was a community and this community engaged with each other and communicated with each other. It was not hard to find him. I also explained that as a new member of this community he had done something intrinsically wrong and that it would take a very long time for this community to show him any trust. If he expected to become a part of the community then he shouldn’t have started by becoming apart from the community
He was apologetic and said that it was opportunistic of him to take the bike, I said, well that is the sort of behavior that is not appreciated, and he is the one that had set his path.
Anyway, long story short, this person began to build a house on the block of land that he purchased. Every time he put up footings and piers for the substructure the teenagers would go and knock them down, not that this was behavior we recommended but it happened, nevertheless.
After about 6 months, the teens got bored with their mild retribution and moved on to other things, the man continued to build his house , however it was at least 3 years before any members of the community would show him a level of trust that would see him start to fit in, however full trust never eventuated.
Ok the Point.
Treat your community well, show them respect and commitment to support and they will return the same degree of connection.
Be the Owner that sets your direction and the destiny you have planned for your business, start out how you aim to continue.