Listen to Difficult situations I’ve navigated recently + how on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
In just a few weeks Radical Disruption will be celebrating its one year anniversary since launch! It’s wild that we’ve been here for one year! In order to celebrate I have a giveaway planned with fun prizes, so be sure to listen to this episode to get the details on how to enter!
In today’s episode I talk through four difficult situations I’ve faced in my business recently. I’ll share my thoughts about each situation as well as how I navigated each.
In today’s episode, Difficult situations I’ve navigated recently + how, I’ll walk through these situations:
- I received a less than kind email from a customer asking for a refund
- A customer telling me that they don’t like how I run my sales
- A stolen reel
- A stolen freebie/lead magnet
Hello hello hello! Welcome back to the show! In just a few weeks radical disruption will be celebrating its one year anniversary since launch, I know it’s absolutely wild, and to celebrate I have a fun giveaway planned and one of the ways to enter to giveaway is to listen to this episode and the following 2 episodes for one keyword that will be shared. If you find all 3 keywords and DM them to me you will get 5 entries to the giveaway. You must do this between Feb 20th and Feb 29th 2024 to qualify
There will be 6 winners and prizes ranging from a free year of IG University to stories that sell for free and another fun prize I’ll keep secret for now until the official launch of the giveaway! More details will be dropping to my email subscribers as well as on my instagram once the giveaway has officially launched on Feb 20th so keep an eye out for that!
Alright let’s dive into these super fun situations — & fun meaning not fun at all in case you didn’t get the sarcasm haha
1- A customer threatening me
This is what the email said quote: “please reverse this charge. I wasn’t aware I was being charged with this annual membership. I have no interest in doing anything further with your organization. I am not a believer in your methods or products. This charge must be reversed immediately otherwise I will publicize my distaste with this auto-charge! Do not charge me anything unless you have my written permission from an email you asking me to be charged”
To which I replied: “your subscription has been cancelled and you’ve been refunded. You’ll see those funds in your account within 8-10 business days”
There are three things I want to say about this situation:
1- be nice to business owners. 99% of the time we are going to do everything in our power to make our customers happy and satisfied and all you have to do is ask if there’s a problem
2- as the customer take accountability for what you sign up for. The offer this person was referring to in the email was the annual membership for IG University and on the checkout page there is a checked box that you have to check before you can check out that says quote “I understand that this is a subscription and that it will auto renew at the end of my billing period unless canceled. By checking this box, I understand that I am in charge of emailing support@myanichol.com to cancel my subscription” — I could’ve easily sent an email response letting the person know that and also quote my terms of use which also talks about cancellations, refunds, auto-renewals, etc. but for this situation in particular and the time the email can in which was during my maternity leave, I had no energy to fight this person
3- the third thing I want to say is that times like these can be hard but also good learning lessons for us as a business owners. anytime I get these types of emails I always make sure that I set up things in my business so that I am protected if the person were to take action like publicizing dictate or disputing the payment or trying something else. In this case, I just checked what I had already put in place because I’ve dealt with similar situations in the past and had to add to my terms of use and contracts after the event occurred but this doesn’t just apply to contracts and terms of use, you also want to make sure that you’re marketing around the offer and copy on your sales and checkout pages are clear
2- difficult situation: Customer telling me they don’t like how I run my sales
This happened in November since that’s the only time I run sales and this person was mad that I had put my offers on sale because they had purchased something from me a few weeks ago at full price and told me that I shouldn’t ever put my offers on sale and used phrases like “felt like a stab in the back” and “this is why I never recommend discounting existing offers” and “as a fellow 7 figure mentor, I don’t think this is the best move”
To which I responded: “Hi ___, thank you so much for taking the time to share this. We value client feedback so much so please know we will pass this info along. Team Mya Nichol”
Here’s my thoughts:
1- it’s my business and I get to run things however I want, just like you get to run your business however you want. If it feels good to you, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not okay. If they don’t like it, they can unfollow or not purchase anymore
2- I think it’s so ick to flex your income over someone else. I would never and have never and will never say “because I’m a multi 6 figure business owner I think you should do xyz” or imply in any way that you should listen to me because I make X amount of money
3- when it comes to sales this is what I’ll say. If you walked into target today and you bought a ninja creami (sharing this as the example cuz I want one haha) and you bought it for full price and then a few weeks later you walk into target and the ninja creami is on sale. Are you going to ask to return the product? Are you going to demand money back? Are you going to freak out? Nope, you’re going to think “oh well that sucks” and move on with life.
4- personal accountability. If what someone is doing, posting, saying, creating, selling is triggering negative feelings in you, unfollow, unsubscribe, etc. what another person does, says, posts, creates is not a comment on your life. And if you’re taking it that way, it’s time to re-evaluate things. I think we should all be able to look at each other as business owners and say “she/he is doing their best and I respect that because business is hard and I’m here to support others and if something doesn’t align with my life and values I have the choice to exit the scenario”
3- okay now for situation number 3… A Stolen reel
I had someone with a pretty large following copy my reel exactly – audio, hook, text, content inside the reel, timing of the reel, etc. to a T. I reached out to this person via DM and let them know that they had copied my content and asked them to take it down within the next 24 hours. This person was super kind and responsive and took the reel down and we had a good discussion about imitation vs inspiration and how it’s 100% okay to take what I created and put a spin on it and make it their own and post that but copying my reel and then tagging me in it is not okay.
Here’s the thing — If want to share the information with your community in the way that the original creator shared it because you liked how they executed the content or just simply liked how they educated on the topic, hit the share button on the post and share it on your stories. That way your community and the original creator both get benefit from it!
Alright let’s pause this conversation here for a second because I have the first of three keywords to give you for the giveaway! The keyword is: self. S-e-l-f.
Okay now back to the conversation…
My thoughts here:
1- if you’re copying content or if you’re copying anything you will get caught. If not immediately, you will eventually. Plus if you’re copying you’re not building a sustainable business or brand. I cannot even tell you how many other big creators have stolen my stuff and it honestly laughable because they get caught every single time (usually by people in my community but sometimes by me) which leads me to my fourth and final difficult situation…
- Stolen freebie
I received a DM from a follower with screenshots of a freebie (lead magnet) that another creator had stolen from me. The freebie was exactly the same down to the exact wording I used at the top of the pages, the tagline on the cover photo, the fonts and colors, and the content itself. BUT this creator had changed the cover photo and the copyright at the bottom to their info and they switched up the way the information was organized in the freebie so if it was listed as 5 on my freebie it might been 14 on their freebie, I’m guessing in attempt to make it seem different but it was the exact wording still.
This one actually stung to the core because this was also a creator that I had respected and had even applied to do 1:1 coaching with me a few months prior
I reached out with a cease and desist email which included side by side comparisons of their freebie vs mine to show the copying and asked the creator to discontinue using the freebie or else legal action would be taken
To which the creator responded that they hadn’t copied my freebie and would never do that and that the freebie was something they had had in their business for years inside a course but only just recently started sharing it for free. Now, before I continue with this story I just have to say this. Fess up if you’ve messed up – don’t try to cover it up because if the person you’ve copied from has built their business with legal protections and also have using any sort of automated way to deliver content then there is 99% of the time evidence that they created it first which means you copied
Okay now for what happened next. I was actually so appalled that the creator would say that they didn’t copy that I didn’t even bother to respond to the email because I could see that they had take down the freebie and I just didn’t have the energy to. If they hadn’t taken it down though, I could’ve gone back to this creator and showed proof of copying because I can see inside of flodesk the exact date that this creator had downloaded the freebie from me and then had screen recorded the exact date that they launched the freebie to their community via a reel which was about a week after they had downloaded it from and on top of that, the copyright they had added to the freebie was dated for the current year whereas my copyright was from 2 years prior.
So anyways, long story short don’t copy people it’ll always bite you in the butt. I’ve literally had people in my community DM me screenshots of courses they had paid for from other creators that had my exact pdfs and trainings in their offer before.
I hope that this episode was helpful in getting you prepared to navigate hard situations and also just letting you know that you’re not alone if you’ve had crappy things happen to you. Everyone talks about the highs of entrepreneurship so much, which is great don’t get me wrong I love being an entrepreneur, but no one talks about the lows anywhere nearly enough and as entrepreneurs there’s some pretty crappy stuff that we have to navigate sometimes and it can feel super lonely so I’m just here to say you’re not alone and you’ve got this!
Ps. Don’t forget to write down the key word from this episode so you can collect the key words in the next two episodes and send them to me via DM for extra giveaway entries!!
Okay, that’s all byeeeee
Resources & Links:
- Stories that Sell
- Manychat
- IG University
- Kajabi 30 day free trial + 20 free story templates
- Around the Clock Masterclass
- List Building 101
- 100 Hook Ideas – FREE GUIDE
Connect with Mya:
- Follow on Instagram @myanichol
- Join my email list
Related Episodes:
- Episode 12: How I’d navigate that
- Episode 20: A hard week: bts reality of my business
- Episode 21: How I’d navigate that part 2
Some of the links mentioned are affiliate links, which helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you.
More about the Radical Disruption podcast:
Are you wanting to make waves in your industry, push the envelope, and change the Bu way things are done in a radical way? Are you looking for tangible, tactical, and actionable steps that will help you build a sustainable business that stands out? You’re in the right place!
Radical Disruption is home to the disrupters. Here you’ll learn how to take your business to the next level, break the status quo, and build a disruptive business.
Nursing student turned business and social media expert, host Mya Nichol (hey that’s me!) shares the real and raw of the crazy journey of entrepreneurship and building a multi-six figure business.
Through solo episodes and special guest interviews, you can expect honest conversations around throwing out the traditional way of business, scaling in a sustainable way, and becoming the go to expert in your industry. It’s time to build a disruptive business. See you on Tuesdays!
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