How To Receive The Benefits Of Feedback Without Feeling Deflated
Welcome to Episode 29 of the Hidden Creative Podcast!
As a branding photographer, business mentor, business community group host, wife and mother of 2, I have learnt that feedback, while a little confronting at times, can be the exact thing we need to grow. In most forms (I’m not going to say all and we will get to that in today’s episode), but in most forms, feedback is an incredibly valuable asset to have. So today, we are chatting about why feedback is so valuable for your business growth, and how you can receive inspiring, usable feedback from an array of different sources to create a business that you know wholeheartedly provides a product or service your clients adore and one that you adore providing for them! Let’s dive in.
My Experience With Feedback…
As a photographer, from the moments I began, I constantly sought out feedback. I wanted to make sure that the photos I produced were of high standard, captured exactly what my clients wanted and represented a style that I was proud of. So in the early days I looked for feedback from everyone. Friends, family, purchasing clients, people who weren’t my client yet. I asked, and most of the time they were happy to answer.
But, in the early days, I also found myself trying all the things to keep up with what everyone had said.
Do you do posed studio newborn photography, absolutely I do. And it would be great if we could have props as I love these pinterest photos. Yep, I will go down and buy some. And our last photographer got our baby to sleep straight away, it would be great if you could do the same and if we could have sleeping shots as well.
Sure, sure, sure.
Had I ever done posed newborn photography before, nope, did I enjoy working with props - absolutely not, did I have experience in getting a baby to sleep - I didn’t even have my babies at that point, no way did I know how to get cute sleeping photos. I listened to and acted on every single piece of feedback, advice or opinion I received to make sure that I was keeping my clients happy and booking the jobs.
So here’s how that all went. I started merrily down a path that ended up having more bumps, potholes and ways out than I expected. At the end, it certainly wasn’t so merry after all. Because while it is most important to listen to the feedback we do receive, acting on all those opinions of others is not necessarily the right way forward. And the one person's feedback that I didn’t get, was my own.
I was trying to keep everyone happy. And in doing so, all I did was make myself very unhappy. Trying to fulfill the wants and needs of everyone around me to and I say with quotation marks here “make my business grow”.
So fast forward a few years later, I had streamlined my photography business a few times by this stage, going from shooting all types of photography, to lifestyle photography, for families and businesses, all the while listening to feedback but this time acting on what felt right and allowed me to improve the service I loved providing.
But, it was around this time, I had been listening to a particular niche in my client base - my business owning clients - and what they were saying about the things they were needing. Photography was certainly one of those things, but then what do you do with those photographs, how can we make them look more cohesive across our website, social media pages, print and media. What do we say when we post those photos? And if we are creating a certain look + feel with our photographs, should we be doing this with all elements of our business too. Shop front colours, logos, website layout and design. All these questions and comments were things that I had asked about and experienced in my business too and it made me feel like there was information and resources I’d created throughout my journey that I could share with them to help.
So, I decided to start a digital course and pour my heart and soul into making sure it had everything that they would need. That feedback I received helped me to grow an offer that I hadn’t even thought about before. And it was feedback that wasn’t necessarily sought out, but more something I happened to hear in the right moment. The digital course was amazing and the business owners I helped had massive shifts in their businesses and the results they achieved. But, my bad habit formed again, and I started acting on too much of the feedback I was receiving, steering away from my wheelhouse and delving into too many topics, trying to help everyone with everything, and ending up with content creation burnout.
I completely lost my ability to create because I was overloaded with so many thoughts and opinions of others, received from a beautiful place of course, but then acted on a little too much.
So why am I sharing all of this with you. Well, this isn’t where the story ends obviously. It was in the feedback that I had received from so many beautiful people during my time away from creating content, that my spark was ignited and I found my mojo once again. And in doing so, this time I decided to get a little smarter in the feedback I was taking on board and acting on and indirectly created a little guide to help receive inspiring, beneficial feedback that allows you to grow and not be left feeling deflated.
So today, that’s what I want to share with you. A deep dive into the world of feedback for a business owner, why it’s so beneficial and how you can receive inspiring and useable feedback that won’t leave you feeling flat (like what happened to me), but that will help you provide a product or service for your clients that you know wholeheartedly hits the mark. There’s a few things I want to cover, so let’s start with why feedback is so beneficial.
Why Is Feedback So Beneficial?
Well, without it, you are offering a product or service with no way of knowing if it is actually what your client wants. Do you see the problem here? You may be pushing a huge rock up a huge mountain and wondering why you aren’t getting anywhere.
Receiving feedback is beneficial because:
It helps you to identify areas of concern for your clients, the problems they might be having, the solutions they have found to help, the things they want more or less of.
It helps you to identify the holes in your business. If there’s room for improvement with your service. If there’s additional products you may be able to create or source to compliment your existing stock.
It helps you to determine how your market is going and then how you can respond because of this. To know if there are things happening in your area that may impact what you are offering. In both good and bads ways.
It helps you to see your business from a different perspective and maybe address things you may not have even noticed
So if feedback provides all these things, then…
How Can Feedback Leave You Feeling Deflated?
I can assume you know what my first point here will be, and that’s when it is unwarranted or unsolicited. This type of feedback I think is the #1 reason why people are often so scared to go out for feedback in the first place. Or to put anything out there at all really. With the internet, social media in particular, it has opened a platform for everyone to have an opinion and not everyone’s opinion is feedback that will matter for you and your business. Receiving feedback that is unwarranted and unsolicited, meaning you did not ask for it, and it is not justified or relatable to what you offer, is just a waste of your time and energy and not beneficial. But, yet can leave you feeling soooo deflated. Even when you didn’t ask for it.
My second point is when you take feedback to heart. As a creative, I know that you take feedback to heart. And from point one, it can be really exhausting and deflating taking feedback from someone who isn’t even your ideal client. Even family can sometimes do this because they fear for you and your outcome and just want to protect you in their own way, but squash your ideas before you’ve had the time to give them a go. Or a client explaining that they didn’t really enjoy this part of your service or product can also leave you feeling deflated because your business isn’t just a business. It’s a part of you.
Thirdly, feedback can be incredibly deflating if you try and act on it all. Listening to everyones thoughts. Changing everything about what you do and offer to keep everyone happy. Overloading yourself to the detriment of your business. Not all feedback should be acted on, but yet we so often people please to the point of forgetting to check in on our own happiness as well.
How Do You Receive The Benefits Of Feedback Without The Heartache + Deflated Feelings + Exhaustion?
FIRSTLY - Who + How You Ask For Feedback.
Feedback won't work if you don’t listen to it or aren’t open to receiving it. So it’s all in the way that you ask for feedback, who you ask it of and how you take it in.
The different types of people who can offer feedback include:
your customers
your prospective customers / your audience
your family
Unfortunately unwarranted or unsolicited
one we so often forget about - yourself
Have a think, who’s feedback you care about and that will impact your business in a way that helps you to grow.
CLIENTS
Your client should be at the top of the list and the only person above them is you. So, as scary as it sounds, sending an email after they have purchased from you asking them what they thought of your product or service, is the most beneficial step to your customer journey with you. They are either going to tell you that they loved it, or aren’t 100% happy. And this is information that you definitely need to know. Because regardless of if they are happy or not, they are going to talk about you and the product or service they received from you - it’s here that you want their answer to be a positive one to help advertise your business in the way you want. If they are happy, then they are going to talk about you in a positive and advertising way. If they aren’t happy, then they are going to talk about you in a not so advertising way. But, if you address their unhappiness straight away and they know that you are open to understanding their feedback then the experience still remains positive.
AUDIENCE
For prospective clients or your audience, it’s important to understand what they need to get them to open that relationship with you, meaning they buy or book with you. So asking for their feedback is really beneficial. However, it’s not always an EASY task to receive feedback, particularly from people who aren’t so invested in what you do just yet. So being creative in the way you ask for feedback here is key. Create a poll, ask a question or use the slider in your instagram stories. Open a conversation in your DMs with people enquiring or reaching out. Hold discovery or consultation calls if you’re a service. Put out a fun quiz. Whatever it takes to let your audience know that you want to hear what they have to say, and prompt them to actually say it.
FAMILY
Family + friends can actually be a really great source of feedback because they aren’t scared of being really honest. They can sometimes tell you exactly how it is and this can be a really good thing. If there is someone that you confide in for your business, don’t be afraid to ask hard questions. For example, a question that can really impact your branding + marketing, this is how I want my business to be perceived (and then explain what that looks like), in your opinion am I executing this well? If they are supportive, they will provide answers that can help you to grow. Now, as I mentioned before, a little word of warning. Family can also limit us and it comes from a place of heart. But, they don’t want to see us fail so sometimes they can give unwarranted feedback if they think it will protect you. Its beneficial here to be aware of the advice you are receiving and which category it fits into. Constructive and useable, or emotional and best left alone.
UNWARRANTED or UNSOLICITED
Now I have listed this point as a reminder - do not ask the opinion of those who aren’t actually invested in what you do and therefore have no justification around the opinion or feedback they provide. This will only result in a misdirection in your energy, the path you take or the time or money you spend. If they aren’t a client or prospective client, your audience, your family or friends, then please don’t waste your energy receiving feedback from those who won’t give you the right feedback you need.
YOURSELF
How often do you actually check in with yourself to understand if what you are doing is bringing you happiness. You may be making lots of money, but it might be burning you out. You may be bringing in lots of clients, but you may be missing the mark on every other aspect of your business and under delivering. You may be adding in all the services, but you are hating what you’re doing. Don’t forget that when seeking feedback, you also seek feedback from yourself. And that is as simple as asking the question, am I happy in what I am doing, who am I serving and how I am providing my product or service right now? If your answer is a no, than that’s feedback you need to listen to.
SECONDLY - How Do You Identify Actionable Feedback
It’s then in identifying the feedback you receive that should be actioned. How do you know what to take action on?
Well, if it is unsolicited feedback, a personal attack, feedback that has no justification what so over, than you can cross it off your list. The only action you may want to take here is for example, spam comments on your social media posts, you might want to delete those. Or if it is a comment said in person, maybe do a little journaling to clear the experience from your energy.
Negative comments on things like social media can actually provide a benefit. Because if their comment is totally unwarranted, then it's in the way you respond. Things like saying “We are so sorry you feel that way, this is absolutely news to us. We love to understand our client experience, please send us a DM so we can chat further.” shows your existing audience how you handle negative remarks, but also makes the comment more personal for the person commenting and usually they think more about what they say in response. Not always, but most cases. Or its a bot. Therefore revert back to what I said before, and delete the comment.
But, if it is feedback from a client, your audience or someone who has your best interests at heart, the next step is to identify if the feedback is actually something you can take action on.
Is it in your wheelhouse? Meaning, is it within your skillset, or something you can actually help with.
Does it improve your product or service? Can it add to what you are doing - while also staying aligned with the business you want to create and the lifestyle you want to live.
Does it improve your business overall?
If your answers here are yes, then listen to the feedback in its entirety and then work out the best plan of action for you and how that will impact your business. And then take action.
Let me give you a real life example. Back when I was photographing family photography, I would regularly ask my audience, what is the #1 thing stopping you from booking a family photoshoot today? I would post this on my social media pages, email it out to my list, and I would receive various answers ranging from - I can’t afford it right now, to I don’t like the way I look right now, to my husband doesn’t enjoy having his photo taken.
What I would do with that feedback is I would write every answer down in a google sheet, and then go back and provide a solution to each #1 reason that was stopping them and then I would create content around those topics. For example, my husband doesn’t like having his photo taken, was a big one and something I used to get a lot. So I would create content around educating my client on how to spin a photoshoot to their hubby so they were more interested. Things like, your husband may noy enjoy the thought of a photoshoot, however, he will love having a family photo to pop in his wallet, put up at work, or have in his office. Your husband may not enjoy the thought of a photoshoot, but he does enjoy having fun with his family (outside of work) and this is what I capture. Not posed, just documenting what I see. Even though this feedback could be classed as objections, those objections would then help me to advertise what I did - in a unique way that allowed me to stand out as a photographer and someone who had experience working with the clients I advertised to.
To Recap - How Do You Receive The Benefits Of Feedback Without Feeling Deflated?
#1 Feedback won't work if you don’t listen to it or aren’t open to receiving it. So it’s all in the way that you ask for feedback, who you ask it of and how you take it in.
#2 It’s then in identifying the feedback you receive that should be actioned and how to know what feedback to take action on.
All feedback is worth listening to, and then it’s up to you to decide if it’s something you will take on board. How you do this is by determining if the feedback you receive is something that is relevant, changeable, not just a personal attack and something that will move your business forward in a positive way and encourage growth and action!
This is a topic I could talk about for days on, but I am mindful of your time. So let’s pull it up there. But, in honouring our episode today, I genuinely love to hear feedback on the episodes I record as I just sit here with a microphone in my face and am never quite sure unless someone reaches out to say that an episode resonated. So please send me a DM if you have feedback or a question from today's episode. I hope it gives you something to think about to help the growth of your business.
Looking for more?
I love to help rural creatives build an impactful small biz with heart and I do that through photography + business mentoring. If you want to learn more, head on over to our photography or mentoring pages here 🙂 Or send me a text, I can’t wait to chat with you xx