Embrace the Suck! - 7 Steps to Overcome Adversity

When I became the first franchisee of ImageFIRST, I was young (33), full of energy, and ready to take on the world. The franchisor and my partner in the venture, Jerry Berstein, and I had many conversations about his expectations and what I needed to do to meet them. I remember one conversation well; his main point was, “Luke, I don’t expect perfection from you. What I do expect is when you make a mistake, you learn from it and not let it happen again.”

I took his advice to heart, and Jerry was right. Despite my mistakes, ImageFIRST - Cincinnati grew from $0 to $2.5M in annual revenue. During our 20-year adventure, Jerry would illuminate areas of improvement and say, “I expect you to correct this, learn how not to let it happen again, and move on.” He never once raised his voice or talked down to me.

Fast forward to this week, and I am helping someone sell multiple assets with multiple price points. In a second conversation with a prospective candidate, I had a moment of incompetence (I’m learning the intricacies of franchising, like drinking from a fire hose) and mixed up the sale price with another asset.

The candidate, I’ll call Matthew, immediately told me he lost confidence in what I was saying and didn’t know if this was a scam. I knew that I had messed up.

Matthew then went on a 20-minute monologue about my incompetence as a salesman. At one point, he said, “I’m not trying to be an a**hole, but ____.” One of the many lessons of being an EMT for 16 years is to meet a patient where they are, not argue with their reality, and pay particular attention to their actions instead of what they say.

Later in the day, Matthew emailed that he wanted to take the next step and meet the seller. As I replayed the monologue over and over in my mind, prayed, and meditated, I concluded that even though I had made an egregious sales error, Matthew’s response told me all I needed to know about his personality.

You see, he ended the conversation by telling me how he had blocked an hour of his day to learn more about the asset, and I wasted his time as if his time was more valuable than everyone else’s.

I haven’t been chastised like that since Mom caught me cussing in the 4th grade.

Embracing the suck requires the following 7 steps to overcome and move on:

- Acknowledge the error. Do not make matters worse with excuses. No one cares what is going on in your life that may lead to mistakes. Only one person is perfect, and Jesus died for us, so we don’t have to be.

- Break down the conversation into the basics, and remove the emotion from the other person. Matthew may have been having a bad morning that had nothing to do with my incompetence.

- Believe the person’s actions, not their words. I’m thankful that I made a mistake because if the conversation had gone perfectly, I wouldn’t know about Matthew’s go-to reaction when his expectations are not met.

- Learn and let it go. Figure out by any means necessary how to avoid the same mistake twice.

- It’s not personal. Matthew and I have talked on the phone in two separate conversations for less than an hour. He has no idea what talents and knowledge I have.

- Determine the next step. If the relationship is salvageable, take the step to re-engage and move forward. In Matthew’s case, the asset I’m selling provides future opportunities for franchisees and me to do business with him. Is Matthew the type of personality to bring into the franchising world?

- Lean on your growth mindset; you’re better today than yesterday and not as good as you’ll be tomorrow.

I hope you’ve learned something from my flaws and have the tools you need to overcome your inevitable mistakes. A mistake becomes a superpower when you learn from it and grow.

Please leave your comments and observations in the section below and help others learn from your mistakes.

And, join me and your colleagues in the Franchisee’s Advanced Leadership Center Mastermind, a new cycle that starts April 4th at 11:00 AM Eastern, so we can share challenges and grow together before mistakes are made. Click the link in the comments to learn more.

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