Mixed Messages.
“You need to show up and honour your truth” he says. “Otherwise it’s going to manifest into your body with unresolved anger, and into your life with toxic relationships”. “Sure thing” I nod...
I’m nodding my head but my gut is twisting. It is not the “I’m listening to my gut and I should have a herbal tea instead of a double shot long black” kind of gut feeling... but more the “that guy feels like a slimy and distrustful kinda mofo and I wouldn’t trust him with my wife" kinda vibe that’s making my gut keep twisting back and forth on top of itself until I’m certain I’m going to be sick.
Why? Because my body is receiving some serious mixed messages. What is coming out of his mouth is incongruent with what I’m seeing in his life. And it’s making me sick. But at some point it’s going to be making him sicker. And yet I nod. Not because it makes my gut untwist; or I need to keep the peace; but simply because once this thread begins to unravel it’s going to take a lot more than a quick twist and bite of the rogue cotton thread to stop it. Hand sown seeds reap plenty of rotten fruit if no one is buying your bullsh*t.
Business is no different. You walk into a shop selling eco friendly, fair trade, organic, products. The way business should be. When all of a sudden nature calls. You wind up using one of the staff toilets, and your sitting there trying to get comfortable in someone else toilet when you hear the owner degrading and belittling one of their staff out the back in staff quarters.
It’s incongruent. The owners are saying they’re committed to treating all of Mother Earth with respect, but they can’t treat their own staff with decency. And maybe their business lasts for 6 months. A year. 3 years. But at some point their clients will stop opening the door. Not because they don’t want to support the ethics of the business, but because something just isn't right. And slowly but surely the business will fizzle away and eventually close their door. They might blame it on macro economics, or unethical shoppers, or the increasing costs of labor. But in reality they just messed up the one and most important thing you always have control over: Making sure your words and actions are in alignment. Avoiding any mixed messages.
Seven of the eight guests on a recent detox retreat with us in Bali were returning clients. And we’re not taking about a ‘$50 eco fair trade water bottle’ kinda purchase. We charge serious coin. Average spend North of $4k Aussie for our retreat experiences. Is 7 out of 8 a statistical anomaly for us? It’s high for sure, but it’s not uncommon. Over the past three years referrals and returning clients have contributed to 49.7% of our business. That is half of every retreat (20 retreats a year) is someone returning or has been referred by someone who has already been. Which explains why we’re currently delivering a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 83.
Natural Instinct Healing is entering our 8th year of business in Asia. And doors are starting to open rather than close. People are getting good gut feelings, and they’re acting on it. And meanwhile my mate’s life (the one preaching to people to show up and honour truths) is just about to take an atomic spin. And as much as I'd like to help, all I can do is sit back and let him spin...
Despite our best efforts to control and plan our personal and professional lives, a large proportion is out of our control. That is one of life's certainties. But not the messages you’re sending - so always try to make certain there is no mixed messages.