Oct. 6, 2026
Episode 18: The Little F-Word In Embroidery
Grab the free SOS - Stitchout guide for quick fixes for UGLY LEFT CHEST LOGOS
https://hopeyoder.myflodesk.com/guide
Have you ever received client feedback that made you question yourself, your process, or whether you were good enough to win the job?
In this episode of the Embroidery Profit Podcast, Hope Yoder shares a real-time story about nearly losing a major embroidery client, not because of poor embroidery work, but because she unintentionally handed her expertise back to the client. What started as a request involving precise brand color requirements became a powerful lesson in client communication, attention to detail, business ownership, and using feedback to grow
Hope breaks down what happened when a prospective large client requested thread colors aligned with specific RGB brand standards. Instead of owning the color-matching process, Hope initially directed the client to her thread supplier. The client’s response highlighted an important truth for every embroidery shop owner: clients hire you for your expertise, problem-solving, and ability to remove friction from their process.
This episode is for embroidery business owners, custom apparel decorators, and makers who want to handle negative feedback professionally, retain high-value clients, improve their systems, and build long-term business relationships.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why client feedback is valuable, even when it stings.
- How to respond to criticism without becoming defensive or firing back emotionally.
- Why large embroidery clients expect vendors to take ownership and solve problems.
- How to turn a mistake into a better embroidery business process.
- Why thread color matching and brand consistency matter for corporate embroidery clients.
- How to improve client communication and reduce friction during the quoting and order process.
- Why attention to detail can matter more than competing on price.
- How to apologize, own your role, and respond with professionalism when a client raises a concern.
- How to turn feedback into stronger systems, better service, and deeper client trust.
- Why you should document embroidery specifications, including thread colors, hoops, needles, stabilizers, and other job details for repeat orders.
The lesson is simple: feedback does not have to break your confidence. It can recalibrate you, expose the gaps in your process, and help you become the expert your clients need. Slow down, own the mistake, avoid excuses, communicate clearly, and use every challenge to build a better embroidery business.
If this episode helped you, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and share it with another embroidery shop owner or custom apparel business owner who is ready to grow.
Chapters
00:00 I Nearly Lost a Massive Embroidery Client
01:00 Big Dreams and a Big Business Opportunity
02:03 The Five-Page Embroidery Order
02:50 Where I Went Wrong
03:19 RGB Brand Colors and Embroidery Thread Matching
04:00 The Email I Thought Was Helpful
05:13 The Feedback That Caught Me Off Guard
06:19 The Little “F” Word in Embroidery: Feedback
07:27 Feeling Like a Failure After Feedback
08:08 Turning a Mistake Into a Better Process
09:30 Why Feedback Helps You Move Beyond Average
11:28 How to Respond to Client Concerns
12:09 The Real Test: How You Handle Mistakes
12:38 Relationships Matter More Than Being the Cheapest
14:28 Why Honest Ownership Builds Trust
14:40 How Feedback Helps Your Business Grow
15:23 Embroidery Forms That Protect Your Business
16:35 Feedback Recalibrates, It Does Not Define You
17:08 How Would You Respond to This Client?
18:03 Use Feedback to Become a Better Business Owner
18:40 The Story Is Still Unfolding
18:51 Help the Embroidery Profit Podcast Grow
19:05 Embroidery Profit Academy Training
Subscribe for more embroidery business tips, embroidery pricing strategies, digitizing advice, customer management systems, and practical ways to grow a profitable custom embroidery business.
🎓 Ready to go all in? Train hands-on with Hope in her Sarasota, FL studio at Embroidery Profit Academy — Small Group or 1-2-1 Training - the small group commercial embroidery workshop that people fly in from across the country to attend. Seats are extremely limited and sell out fast. 👉 Register & read student reviews:
https://hopeyoder.com/product-category/courses/in-person-workshop/
🌐Downloadable Fillable Embroidery Forms - Every business needs https://hopeyoder.com/product/emb-bundle/
🌐Instagram Made Simple Mini Course - https://hopeyoder.mykajabi.com/offers/vkdxwpoz/checkout
📌 Connect with Hope: 🌐 hopeyoder.com 📸 Instagram: @hopeyoder 🎓 Courses: hopeyoder.mykajabi.com 📍 Hands-On Embroidery School in Sarasota
👥 Facebook Community: Embroidery Lounge
👥 Facebook Community: Engraving With Hope Yoder
#EmbroideryBusiness #EmbroideryShop #ClientFeedback #CustomerService #BusinessGrowth #EmbroideryTips #CustomApparel #CorporateEmbroidery #SmallBusinessOwner #EmbroideryProfitPodcast
WEBVTT
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[SPEAKER_00]: I nearly lost a massive client that could bring me huge income like one that I've never had before.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not because of bad work, but because I handed my expertise back to them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not on purpose.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was being helpful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Hope Yoder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the embroidery profit podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This story has no ending yet, but there's a lesson too good to wait.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to tell you a story that happened to me this week.
00:31.102 --> 00:33.684
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a referral from a good friend of mine.
00:34.684 --> 00:43.687
[SPEAKER_00]: And he sent me a message saying, hey, I'm sending you a client that's my client that I do personalization stuff for.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't trust many people out there for embroidery, but I trust you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was pretty cool.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He told me that the client was particular.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It had huge potential for me because he had other companies and that I want to get my foot in the door with him because that could really grow my business.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys, I gotta be honest, that's something that I pray for daily.
01:11.155 --> 01:16.396
[SPEAKER_00]: I have big dreams and I always say that God is my source.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So listen to this story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lesson
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[SPEAKER_00]: I got excited, though listen to how this true story unfolded.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on a Zoom call and I have my computer on focus which means my phone doesn't ring.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I see a text message that pops up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I missed a phone call, I missed a text.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I saw who it was and I realized, oh no!
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I immediately pick up the phone and I call him back and say who I am and I apologize.
01:56.982 --> 02:11.153
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on a Zoom call and he is a very serious client and he said to me, hey, I don't know if you saw the email I sent, but so and so introduced us and I just sent you an order that I want to get a quote for.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now after I got off the phone, I looked at this order and it
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[SPEAKER_00]: He actually emailed it to me, and then within a minute called me another minute later text me, that shows intent and that he's serious.
02:30.041 --> 02:34.223
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was heartbroken that I thought I would miss this opportunity.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All right, the cool thing is I just bought a fourth head, another embroidery machine, and I thought,
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is gonna help me pay for that six head machine that I wanna add to my fleet of machines.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So let me tell you where I went wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, as I was excited and I didn't fully process the spreadsheet that he sent me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And on that spreadsheet, this is a big global billion dollar company.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I've really not dealt with anybody this big before.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so they had very specific RGB codes for their thread that has to match their branding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, most of the clients that I've dealt with, they're big or they're smaller businesses.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times they'll let me substitute a thread color, for instance, if they have black in their logo and I'm embroidering on a black shirt, we substitute it out for white.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this company on the first spreadsheet went over all of the RGB colors for every color in their branding.
03:42.856 --> 03:43.797
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I know that to my knowledge, there's no embroidery polyester thread company out there that will match the RGB colors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I was looking at it and looking at my real thread chart and trying to find something that matched.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what I said to them in an email.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was being super helpful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I sent them a link to my thread supplier.
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[SPEAKER_00]: for the polyester thread.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, here's where I order threads from.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm happy to order any and all threads that you think match your brand, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't that sound like a good thing to say?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I got off the phone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I was feeling like a genius.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to pat myself on the back thinking, wow, I wasn't afraid to send in the supplier for the thread.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I went to bed feeling good and hopeful and expecting good things.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I went to sleep.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I woke up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Email number one, the client sent an email to the support team at the thread company where I had sent him the link asking for the RGB colors for their branding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't I think of that?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I know that they have pantone colors and I know
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[SPEAKER_00]: but not RGB, and I didn't even think about that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought they could pick it that way they would get what they want and we'd all be happy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 30 minutes later, I'm sitting in B&I.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I check my email discreetly, and there's a second email from my prospect himself, and I'm just gonna read this from my teleprompter, right here, word for word, okay?
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was an email that took me by surprise.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'll paraphrase it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, the email said that he was surprised that I couldn't get the RGB codes from the supplier.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He said their website says that they're happy.
05:43.064 --> 05:48.027
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me their website said they were happy to help with precise codes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He also mentioned that it took a lot for him to look through the website.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't basically have time for that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't know anything about thread and it assumed that I had a standard operating procedure for picking threads because I am the expert.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And he ended the email saying, he wasn't trying to be critical.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was just flagging a concern that he saw about my,
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[SPEAKER_00]: attention to detail the F letter word and embroidery you guys.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Feedback.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Why would it be a bad thing?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if they're telling me how great I am and I'm getting those five star Google reviews, that's great feedback.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It boosts my ego.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It encourages me to do more.
06:41.642 --> 06:43.343
[SPEAKER_00]: But I had to sit on that one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That feedback isn't what I expected, and I certainly didn't enjoy reading it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I had to let the email go, breathe in, breathe out, and focus on the meeting I was sitting in.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm smart enough to know that I should not have a knee jerk reaction and reply to that, because it probably wouldn't have been nice.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, I was humbled.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm not gonna pretend
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[SPEAKER_00]: that it felt good.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was definitely not the highlight of my day or my week.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I went to bed feeling like
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[SPEAKER_00]: good things are going to happen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to grow my business.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get this huge job and I'm going to send me more.
07:24.774 --> 07:29.015
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I can buy that next machine and I woke up thinking, I'm a failure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was my first reaction.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It upset me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like a failure.
07:36.237 --> 07:38.177
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I had to think wait a minute.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a failure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't want to think that I don't want to work with a
07:51.361 --> 08:00.144
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I was smart, which I ended up being smart, I had to say let me just think about how to respond to this email.
08:00.784 --> 08:08.527
[SPEAKER_00]: And all day I kept thinking about why didn't I think about getting the RGB colors and requesting that from the supplier.
08:08.987 --> 08:18.351
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because in my head I thought no thread goes by RGB and just because I didn't think about emailing them direct before my client did.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm out of failure.
08:20.492 --> 08:24.777
[SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't have experience with this type of opportunity before.
08:25.397 --> 08:29.601
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said to myself, all right, stop feeling sorry for yourself.
08:30.162 --> 08:32.664
[SPEAKER_00]: How can we turn this into a positive?
08:32.804 --> 08:35.327
[SPEAKER_00]: I was literally driving to a doctor's appointment.
08:35.707 --> 08:37.367
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was just kind of processing this.
08:37.427 --> 08:44.069
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking, how do I become better from this feedback?
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[SPEAKER_00]: It really wasn't criticism, I guess it was.
08:46.990 --> 08:53.131
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think honestly, they were really trying to test me to see how I would respond.
08:53.311 --> 08:58.793
[SPEAKER_00]: And to tell me that they were a little disappointed that I didn't think how to make
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[SPEAKER_00]: picking their client colors easier.
09:02.716 --> 09:08.685
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I had to put myself in their shoes, and I had to think when he received my email, what did he think of it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was being a genius and telling them pick your own colors.
09:14.178 --> 09:18.560
[SPEAKER_00]: But he probably rolled his eyes side and thought, I do not have time for this.
09:18.580 --> 09:20.561
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I'm hiring you.
09:21.401 --> 09:26.363
[SPEAKER_00]: Large companies hire vendors, so they don't have to do the work.
09:26.383 --> 09:34.266
[SPEAKER_00]: They can trust someone else who's an expert me in this case to work smarter for them, so they don't have to put in all that work.
09:34.526 --> 09:36.687
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did fail at that.
09:37.868 --> 09:49.118
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, I'm actually glad, three days later, I am really glad that happened to me because I never want to get too comfortable in my own skin.
09:49.598 --> 09:56.244
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, if you're comfortable where you are, your status quo, I'm talking to myself.
09:56.324 --> 10:01.268
[SPEAKER_00]: I sound like I'm talking to you and I am, but status quo, that's such a terrible term.
10:01.749 --> 10:04.131
[SPEAKER_00]: And I never, ever wanna be,
10:04.531 --> 10:05.272
[SPEAKER_00]: status quo.
10:05.312 --> 10:06.332
[SPEAKER_00]: That's generic.
10:06.412 --> 10:07.453
[SPEAKER_00]: That's average.
10:07.853 --> 10:08.694
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be average.
10:08.834 --> 10:13.917
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be a above average, and I can't get there without feedback.
10:14.217 --> 10:21.742
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it stinks, I need to get above average fast, and that feedback is going to help me do it.
10:22.183 --> 10:27.206
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to think, what would I do different now that I got the feedback?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, I would slow down.
10:30.888 --> 10:31.108
[SPEAKER_00]: I would
10:35.160 --> 10:36.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have looked over it.
10:36.741 --> 10:45.786
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have seen how important the color was that was mentioned every single sheet and every single line.
10:46.306 --> 10:58.553
[SPEAKER_00]: That probably should tell me that they worked with companies in the past who didn't go the extra mile to make sure that that color was the closest match humanly possible.
11:03.203 --> 11:06.685
[SPEAKER_00]: expert answer, you know, color matching is my job.
11:07.506 --> 11:09.347
[SPEAKER_00]: Not their job, all right?
11:09.947 --> 11:16.772
[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to make sure I was going to do my job and I put that monkey on their back instead of taking it for myself.
11:17.712 --> 11:22.815
[SPEAKER_00]: Step three, I should have emailed the supplier for the closest matches and code.
11:22.856 --> 11:25.777
[SPEAKER_00]: But for my client did, that's just darn right and bare as seen.
11:26.638 --> 11:28.099
[SPEAKER_00]: I moved too fast.
11:28.559 --> 11:31.962
[SPEAKER_00]: really what it boils down to is working with a big client like that.
11:32.703 --> 11:35.725
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a smaller margin of friction.
11:36.226 --> 11:39.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Their pain need to remove their problems.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, how did I answer that email?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you wondering that?
11:44.492 --> 11:48.015
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's some things that I didn't say and I would never say.
11:48.396 --> 11:50.497
[SPEAKER_00]: I would never make excuses.
11:50.557 --> 11:53.380
[SPEAKER_00]: I would never say, I'm a smaller company.
11:53.400 --> 11:55.522
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to explain.
11:56.728 --> 11:58.170
[SPEAKER_00]: why I did what I did.
11:58.190 --> 12:07.683
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to say why I thought that would be helpful if you picked your own colors because that shows that I'm probably not as professional as what he originally was led to believe.
12:08.795 --> 12:21.500
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, I believe after I thought about this all day, I really think that he probably was testing me because after I would do this if I was hiring someone, I would give them some test.
12:22.361 --> 12:25.262
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really don't care if they screw it up or they mess it up.
12:25.702 --> 12:30.024
[SPEAKER_00]: What I care about is how did they handle it?
12:31.062 --> 12:34.464
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how was I going to respond to his email?
12:35.244 --> 12:38.005
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's the real audition.
12:38.505 --> 12:40.746
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that it's necessarily going to be price point.
12:41.026 --> 12:46.929
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to price that out and race to the bottom and be the cheapest person just to get the job.
12:46.989 --> 12:53.392
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a huge order and we probably will have to buy more embroidery heads soon if we keep getting repeat orders.
12:53.732 --> 12:56.114
[SPEAKER_00]: which I will be like, thank you, Jesus, for that.
12:56.134 --> 12:57.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
12:58.436 --> 13:01.599
[SPEAKER_00]: But how did I handle my mistake?
13:02.279 --> 13:18.253
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where relationships are built, not necessarily on cost, but on am I going to take action, own what I should have done the first time, not make excuses and do better and build that relationship,
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[SPEAKER_00]: M I a critical thinker M I a critical thinker and I a critical thinker.
13:25.838 --> 13:28.801
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that first email I wasn't, but now I am.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So are you wondering what reply I hit what here's what the reply ended up being a little paraphrase, but I said something like, thank you for your attention to detail.
13:41.030 --> 13:42.351
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so clear to me.
13:42.868 --> 13:48.914
[SPEAKER_00]: that you care about getting this right and so do I. I'm going to be transparent with you.
13:49.254 --> 13:55.701
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never had a client come to me and ask for RGB specs to match the thread.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's not an excuse.
13:57.743 --> 13:58.984
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just the truth.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Your email this morning was something I truly need to hear.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I can see that your team reached out to the supplier if no reply comes from the thread supplier.
14:10.413 --> 14:11.914
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll call them directly.
14:12.514 --> 14:17.757
[SPEAKER_00]: I really want to say I appreciate you saying something to me, not everyone would.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Kind regards Hope Yoder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that?
14:21.839 --> 14:22.540
[SPEAKER_00]: I owned it.
14:23.160 --> 14:23.921
[SPEAKER_00]: I was real.
14:24.181 --> 14:25.121
[SPEAKER_00]: I was authentic.
14:25.342 --> 14:27.103
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't make excuse.
14:28.204 --> 14:31.907
[SPEAKER_00]: I left room for grace if he wanted to extend it to me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I made a commitment that I would do better.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
14:38.091 --> 14:40.033
[SPEAKER_00]: A little f-word feedback.
14:40.513 --> 14:43.856
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a word in business that we all need to welcome.
14:44.396 --> 14:47.298
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of us are terrified of negative feedback.
14:47.338 --> 14:48.299
[SPEAKER_00]: We get defensive.
14:48.579 --> 14:54.424
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to fire back or we want to fire that client or we want to say, you know what, they're going to be too difficult to work with.
14:55.307 --> 14:59.009
[SPEAKER_00]: But in all honesty, that's going to make me grow.
14:59.169 --> 15:00.669
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to make me better.
15:00.689 --> 15:14.635
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to get me to where my dream is and my goals are faster, handling conflict, handling resolution, growing, taking time to think about where I failed and how I can do better.
15:15.035 --> 15:21.282
[SPEAKER_00]: feedback is one of the most valuable things that can happen to you, especially when it's not.
15:21.682 --> 15:22.823
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the greatest.
15:23.344 --> 15:24.886
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, let's take a quick break.
15:25.206 --> 15:28.970
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you still winging it when a client calls you or job comes in?
15:29.290 --> 15:34.596
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I develop these three forms that we use in our business every day, and I wanted to tell you about them.
15:34.896 --> 15:36.977
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to guess or stay stuck.
15:37.017 --> 15:40.598
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to have a real system and a workflow to start with.
15:40.898 --> 15:42.418
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the client disclaimer.
15:42.538 --> 15:48.159
[SPEAKER_00]: If they bring you a form and your machine eats the garment, that's the kiss of death.
15:48.340 --> 15:50.960
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can have a disclaimer to protect you from that.
15:51.520 --> 15:53.281
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, there's the client approval form.
15:53.501 --> 16:01.803
[SPEAKER_00]: When you get that perfect looking logo digitized and you email a picture to your client, you want them to sign off on it, show that you have their approval.
16:02.143 --> 16:03.324
[SPEAKER_00]: proof and writing.
16:03.685 --> 16:05.767
[SPEAKER_00]: And third, this is the most important form.
16:06.007 --> 16:14.676
[SPEAKER_00]: When a job comes in, you're going to write down everything from the mighty hoop to the thread colors to the needle, the stabilizers, just everything.
16:15.076 --> 16:24.967
[SPEAKER_00]: So when they come back a year from now or two years from now and say, I want that exact same thing, same polo, same bat station, same bat channel, you don't go.
16:25.547 --> 16:27.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh, I have no idea what I did.
16:27.569 --> 16:34.415
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find the forms on our website, hopeyotor.com under the download embroidery section or they'll be linked in the show notes below.
16:35.336 --> 16:45.206
[SPEAKER_00]: I have 30 years of experience in the industry and I gave him homework and assigned him the job of finding his own threads, even though I didn't see it that way.
16:45.846 --> 16:49.350
[SPEAKER_00]: His email didn't break my confidence in the end.
16:49.590 --> 16:50.771
[SPEAKER_00]: It recalibrated.
16:51.371 --> 16:52.552
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a big difference.
16:53.032 --> 16:54.792
[SPEAKER_00]: If this happens to you, be like me.
16:54.972 --> 16:56.133
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to carry this.
16:56.273 --> 17:00.334
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pick it up, learn from it and move forward.
17:00.794 --> 17:03.695
[SPEAKER_00]: Real growth holds someone up to a mirror.
17:04.396 --> 17:05.976
[SPEAKER_00]: You can change what you see.
17:06.296 --> 17:07.697
[SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't argue with it.
17:08.177 --> 17:11.018
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you guys are multitasking, stop.
17:12.045 --> 17:12.865
[SPEAKER_00]: come back to me.
17:13.566 --> 17:18.668
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were me and you were in my shoes and you got that email, how would you respond?
17:19.489 --> 17:20.830
[SPEAKER_00]: How quick would you respond?
17:21.470 --> 17:23.551
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you fire off with a defense?
17:24.712 --> 17:27.893
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you let the prospect go and say, I don't need that hassle.
17:27.973 --> 17:28.734
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not worth it.
17:28.754 --> 17:29.914
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't pay me enough.
17:30.334 --> 17:31.375
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you ignore it?
17:31.875 --> 17:35.237
[SPEAKER_00]: Or would you sit with it and look for the truth in it?
17:35.397 --> 17:35.977
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, only
17:41.440 --> 17:43.381
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still letting me build on the job.
17:43.701 --> 17:45.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I got several emails from him.
17:46.101 --> 17:52.103
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last one he said, I appreciate your attention to detail so far, so good.
17:52.503 --> 18:03.806
[SPEAKER_00]: That tells me that me taking time, taking some deep breaths that I answered him correctly, being honest, owning it and moving forward.
18:04.006 --> 18:09.267
[SPEAKER_00]: When you get that next feedback, will it sting or will it leave you unchanged?
18:11.465 --> 18:13.606
[SPEAKER_00]: to become who you want to be.
18:13.766 --> 18:14.666
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm choosing to grow.
18:14.726 --> 18:16.467
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to build a better process.
18:16.507 --> 18:25.670
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to be that person that he chooses to build a relationship with who takes his problem of having different embrothers not reflect his brand.
18:26.130 --> 18:26.990
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not there yet.
18:27.310 --> 18:27.951
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm close.
18:28.471 --> 18:30.511
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm closer today that I was yesterday.
18:30.672 --> 18:31.492
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
18:31.652 --> 18:32.452
[SPEAKER_00]: That's enough.
18:32.512 --> 18:35.813
[SPEAKER_00]: So if this happens to you, don't beat yourself up.
18:36.594 --> 18:40.575
[SPEAKER_00]: Use that feedback in a positive way to do better.
18:40.915 --> 18:47.298
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode has no ending because I'm still in the works of trying to get that relationship built to get the job.
18:47.738 --> 18:48.639
[SPEAKER_00]: So stay tuned.
18:48.679 --> 18:51.440
[SPEAKER_00]: You might hear me talk about that on a future podcast.
18:51.840 --> 18:58.504
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've liked this podcast, do us a favor and help us reach more people by leaving a five-star review on
18:59.444 --> 19:02.205
[SPEAKER_00]: Apple podcasts, that helps more than you know.
19:02.585 --> 19:07.807
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to invite you all to join me in my studio in Sarasota, Florida.
19:08.127 --> 19:11.409
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an embroidery prophet academy and you can come two ways.
19:11.689 --> 19:14.850
[SPEAKER_00]: You can come in a group setting where we take eight or less people.
19:15.310 --> 19:24.857
[SPEAKER_00]: And we spend the whole weekend getting your systems and your framework and your techniques so you can go back home and you could start making money today.
19:25.277 --> 19:38.546
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you want it to be all about you, we have a one-to-one training where you can come over a weekend and we're going to dive deep into you and build your niche and your systems and your framework.
19:39.187 --> 19:39.967
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Hope Yoder.
19:40.227 --> 19:44.050
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Emberdory Profit Podcast and I'll see you here next time.
00:00.051 --> 00:07.780
[SPEAKER_00]: I nearly lost a massive client that could bring me huge income like one that I've never had before.
00:08.160 --> 00:13.086
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because of bad work, but because I handed my expertise back to them.
00:13.547 --> 00:14.227
[SPEAKER_00]: Not on purpose.
00:14.768 --> 00:15.949
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was being helpful.
00:16.915 --> 00:17.675
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Hope Yoder.
00:17.936 --> 00:20.157
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the embroidery profit podcast.
00:20.677 --> 00:26.300
[SPEAKER_00]: This story has no ending yet, but there's a lesson too good to wait.
00:26.480 --> 00:30.562
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to tell you a story that happened to me this week.
00:31.102 --> 00:33.684
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a referral from a good friend of mine.
00:34.684 --> 00:43.687
[SPEAKER_00]: And he sent me a message saying, hey, I'm sending you a client that's my client that I do personalization stuff for.
00:44.528 --> 00:50.810
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't trust many people out there for embroidery, but I trust you.
00:51.710 --> 00:52.050
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
00:52.370 --> 00:53.310
[SPEAKER_00]: That was pretty cool.
00:53.450 --> 00:55.971
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me that the client was particular.
00:56.391 --> 01:06.073
[SPEAKER_00]: It had huge potential for me because he had other companies and that I want to get my foot in the door with him because that could really grow my business.
01:06.533 --> 01:11.135
[SPEAKER_00]: And you guys, I gotta be honest, that's something that I pray for daily.
01:11.155 --> 01:16.396
[SPEAKER_00]: I have big dreams and I always say that God is my source.
01:16.936 --> 01:18.996
[SPEAKER_00]: So listen to this story.
01:19.336 --> 01:20.157
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lesson
01:22.077 --> 01:26.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I got excited, though listen to how this true story unfolded.
01:27.361 --> 01:33.485
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on a Zoom call and I have my computer on focus which means my phone doesn't ring.
01:34.166 --> 01:37.368
[SPEAKER_00]: I see a text message that pops up.
01:37.808 --> 01:40.350
[SPEAKER_00]: I missed a phone call, I missed a text.
01:40.970 --> 01:44.393
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw who it was and I realized, oh no!
01:50.477 --> 01:56.882
[SPEAKER_00]: So I immediately pick up the phone and I call him back and say who I am and I apologize.
01:56.982 --> 02:11.153
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on a Zoom call and he is a very serious client and he said to me, hey, I don't know if you saw the email I sent, but so and so introduced us and I just sent you an order that I want to get a quote for.
02:11.874 --> 02:15.797
[SPEAKER_00]: Now after I got off the phone, I looked at this order and it
02:19.957 --> 02:29.641
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually emailed it to me, and then within a minute called me another minute later text me, that shows intent and that he's serious.
02:30.041 --> 02:34.223
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was heartbroken that I thought I would miss this opportunity.
02:34.543 --> 02:42.627
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, the cool thing is I just bought a fourth head, another embroidery machine, and I thought,
02:43.248 --> 02:44.389
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is it.
02:44.429 --> 02:50.195
[SPEAKER_00]: This is gonna help me pay for that six head machine that I wanna add to my fleet of machines.
02:50.716 --> 02:53.679
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me tell you where I went wrong.
02:54.000 --> 03:00.467
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, as I was excited and I didn't fully process the spreadsheet that he sent me.
03:01.708 --> 03:06.212
[SPEAKER_00]: And on that spreadsheet, this is a big global billion dollar company.
03:06.753 --> 03:09.535
[SPEAKER_00]: I've really not dealt with anybody this big before.
03:10.055 --> 03:18.463
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they had very specific RGB codes for their thread that has to match their branding.
03:19.123 --> 03:23.526
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, most of the clients that I've dealt with, they're big or they're smaller businesses.
03:24.006 --> 03:33.611
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times they'll let me substitute a thread color, for instance, if they have black in their logo and I'm embroidering on a black shirt, we substitute it out for white.
03:34.011 --> 03:41.936
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this company on the first spreadsheet went over all of the RGB colors for every color in their branding.
03:42.856 --> 03:43.797
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
03:44.118 --> 03:53.026
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that to my knowledge, there's no embroidery polyester thread company out there that will match the RGB colors.
03:53.506 --> 03:59.732
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was looking at it and looking at my real thread chart and trying to find something that matched.
04:00.172 --> 04:02.374
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's what I said to them in an email.
04:02.414 --> 04:04.156
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was being super helpful.
04:04.496 --> 04:07.279
[SPEAKER_00]: So I sent them a link to my thread supplier.
04:08.397 --> 04:09.598
[SPEAKER_00]: for the polyester thread.
04:09.738 --> 04:12.800
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, here's where I order threads from.
04:12.960 --> 04:18.703
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm happy to order any and all threads that you think match your brand, right?
04:18.743 --> 04:21.165
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't that sound like a good thing to say?
04:21.605 --> 04:23.226
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I got off the phone.
04:23.306 --> 04:25.347
[SPEAKER_00]: I was feeling like a genius.
04:25.467 --> 04:31.611
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to pat myself on the back thinking, wow, I wasn't afraid to send in the supplier for the thread.
04:31.691 --> 04:36.854
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to bed feeling good and hopeful and expecting good things.
04:38.930 --> 04:39.511
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to sleep.
04:40.431 --> 04:41.032
[SPEAKER_00]: I woke up.
04:42.713 --> 04:56.745
[SPEAKER_00]: Email number one, the client sent an email to the support team at the thread company where I had sent him the link asking for the RGB colors for their branding.
04:57.305 --> 04:58.226
[SPEAKER_00]: Why didn't I think of that?
04:58.727 --> 04:59.607
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
04:59.627 --> 05:02.470
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that they have pantone colors and I know
05:05.421 --> 05:08.123
[SPEAKER_00]: but not RGB, and I didn't even think about that.
05:08.623 --> 05:12.805
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought they could pick it that way they would get what they want and we'd all be happy.
05:13.586 --> 05:16.067
[SPEAKER_00]: 30 minutes later, I'm sitting in B&I.
05:16.167 --> 05:27.234
[SPEAKER_00]: I check my email discreetly, and there's a second email from my prospect himself, and I'm just gonna read this from my teleprompter, right here, word for word, okay?
05:27.874 --> 05:31.216
[SPEAKER_00]: This was an email that took me by surprise.
05:31.776 --> 05:32.877
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll paraphrase it.
05:32.957 --> 05:39.501
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, the email said that he was surprised that I couldn't get the RGB codes from the supplier.
05:40.282 --> 05:42.583
[SPEAKER_00]: He said their website says that they're happy.
05:43.064 --> 05:48.027
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me their website said they were happy to help with precise codes.
05:49.204 --> 05:54.327
[SPEAKER_00]: He also mentioned that it took a lot for him to look through the website.
05:54.407 --> 05:56.508
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't basically have time for that.
05:56.888 --> 06:07.353
[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't know anything about thread and it assumed that I had a standard operating procedure for picking threads because I am the expert.
06:07.773 --> 06:11.555
[SPEAKER_00]: And he ended the email saying, he wasn't trying to be critical.
06:12.076 --> 06:16.618
[SPEAKER_00]: He was just flagging a concern that he saw about my,
06:17.218 --> 06:23.861
[SPEAKER_00]: attention to detail the F letter word and embroidery you guys.
06:24.941 --> 06:25.722
[SPEAKER_00]: Feedback.
06:26.902 --> 06:28.743
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would it be a bad thing?
06:29.423 --> 06:37.106
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if they're telling me how great I am and I'm getting those five star Google reviews, that's great feedback.
06:37.166 --> 06:38.427
[SPEAKER_00]: It boosts my ego.
06:38.487 --> 06:40.328
[SPEAKER_00]: It encourages me to do more.
06:41.642 --> 06:43.343
[SPEAKER_00]: But I had to sit on that one.
06:43.924 --> 06:50.289
[SPEAKER_00]: That feedback isn't what I expected, and I certainly didn't enjoy reading it.
06:50.950 --> 06:56.634
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to let the email go, breathe in, breathe out, and focus on the meeting I was sitting in.
06:57.395 --> 07:04.100
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm smart enough to know that I should not have a knee jerk reaction and reply to that, because it probably wouldn't have been nice.
07:04.881 --> 07:07.103
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, I was humbled.
07:07.803 --> 07:09.365
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm not gonna pretend
07:09.985 --> 07:11.186
[SPEAKER_00]: that it felt good.
07:11.566 --> 07:12.166
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't.
07:13.127 --> 07:16.990
[SPEAKER_00]: It was definitely not the highlight of my day or my week.
07:17.370 --> 07:18.811
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to bed feeling like
07:20.073 --> 07:21.153
[SPEAKER_00]: good things are going to happen.
07:21.173 --> 07:22.254
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to grow my business.
07:22.274 --> 07:24.754
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to get this huge job and I'm going to send me more.
07:24.774 --> 07:29.015
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I can buy that next machine and I woke up thinking, I'm a failure.
07:29.035 --> 07:30.095
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
07:30.235 --> 07:31.856
[SPEAKER_00]: That was my first reaction.
07:32.056 --> 07:32.956
[SPEAKER_00]: It upset me.
07:33.376 --> 07:36.057
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like a failure.
07:36.237 --> 07:38.177
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I had to think wait a minute.
07:38.777 --> 07:39.698
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a failure.
07:40.118 --> 07:40.538
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
07:40.918 --> 07:43.458
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't want to think that I don't want to work with a
07:51.361 --> 08:00.144
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I was smart, which I ended up being smart, I had to say let me just think about how to respond to this email.
08:00.784 --> 08:08.527
[SPEAKER_00]: And all day I kept thinking about why didn't I think about getting the RGB colors and requesting that from the supplier.
08:08.987 --> 08:18.351
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because in my head I thought no thread goes by RGB and just because I didn't think about emailing them direct before my client did.
08:19.091 --> 08:19.872
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm out of failure.
08:20.492 --> 08:24.777
[SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't have experience with this type of opportunity before.
08:25.397 --> 08:29.601
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said to myself, all right, stop feeling sorry for yourself.
08:30.162 --> 08:32.664
[SPEAKER_00]: How can we turn this into a positive?
08:32.804 --> 08:35.327
[SPEAKER_00]: I was literally driving to a doctor's appointment.
08:35.707 --> 08:37.367
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was just kind of processing this.
08:37.427 --> 08:44.069
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking, how do I become better from this feedback?
08:44.289 --> 08:46.930
[SPEAKER_00]: It really wasn't criticism, I guess it was.
08:46.990 --> 08:53.131
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think honestly, they were really trying to test me to see how I would respond.
08:53.311 --> 08:58.793
[SPEAKER_00]: And to tell me that they were a little disappointed that I didn't think how to make
08:59.632 --> 09:02.236
[SPEAKER_00]: picking their client colors easier.
09:02.716 --> 09:08.685
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I had to put myself in their shoes, and I had to think when he received my email, what did he think of it?
09:09.266 --> 09:13.291
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I was being a genius and telling them pick your own colors.
09:14.178 --> 09:18.560
[SPEAKER_00]: But he probably rolled his eyes side and thought, I do not have time for this.
09:18.580 --> 09:20.561
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I'm hiring you.
09:21.401 --> 09:26.363
[SPEAKER_00]: Large companies hire vendors, so they don't have to do the work.
09:26.383 --> 09:34.266
[SPEAKER_00]: They can trust someone else who's an expert me in this case to work smarter for them, so they don't have to put in all that work.
09:34.526 --> 09:36.687
[SPEAKER_00]: And I did fail at that.
09:37.868 --> 09:49.118
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, I'm actually glad, three days later, I am really glad that happened to me because I never want to get too comfortable in my own skin.
09:49.598 --> 09:56.244
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys, if you're comfortable where you are, your status quo, I'm talking to myself.
09:56.324 --> 10:01.268
[SPEAKER_00]: I sound like I'm talking to you and I am, but status quo, that's such a terrible term.
10:01.749 --> 10:04.131
[SPEAKER_00]: And I never, ever wanna be,
10:04.531 --> 10:05.272
[SPEAKER_00]: status quo.
10:05.312 --> 10:06.332
[SPEAKER_00]: That's generic.
10:06.412 --> 10:07.453
[SPEAKER_00]: That's average.
10:07.853 --> 10:08.694
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be average.
10:08.834 --> 10:13.917
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be a above average, and I can't get there without feedback.
10:14.217 --> 10:21.742
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it stinks, I need to get above average fast, and that feedback is going to help me do it.
10:22.183 --> 10:27.206
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to think, what would I do different now that I got the feedback?
10:28.046 --> 10:30.588
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, I would slow down.
10:30.888 --> 10:31.108
[SPEAKER_00]: I would
10:35.160 --> 10:36.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have looked over it.
10:36.741 --> 10:45.786
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have seen how important the color was that was mentioned every single sheet and every single line.
10:46.306 --> 10:58.553
[SPEAKER_00]: That probably should tell me that they worked with companies in the past who didn't go the extra mile to make sure that that color was the closest match humanly possible.
11:03.203 --> 11:06.685
[SPEAKER_00]: expert answer, you know, color matching is my job.
11:07.506 --> 11:09.347
[SPEAKER_00]: Not their job, all right?
11:09.947 --> 11:16.772
[SPEAKER_00]: They wanted to make sure I was going to do my job and I put that monkey on their back instead of taking it for myself.
11:17.712 --> 11:22.815
[SPEAKER_00]: Step three, I should have emailed the supplier for the closest matches and code.
11:22.856 --> 11:25.777
[SPEAKER_00]: But for my client did, that's just darn right and bare as seen.
11:26.638 --> 11:28.099
[SPEAKER_00]: I moved too fast.
11:28.559 --> 11:31.962
[SPEAKER_00]: really what it boils down to is working with a big client like that.
11:32.703 --> 11:35.725
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a smaller margin of friction.
11:36.226 --> 11:39.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Their pain need to remove their problems.
11:40.109 --> 11:42.991
[SPEAKER_00]: So, how did I answer that email?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are you wondering that?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's some things that I didn't say and I would never say.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I would never make excuses.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I would never say, I'm a smaller company.
11:53.400 --> 11:55.522
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to explain.
11:56.728 --> 11:58.170
[SPEAKER_00]: why I did what I did.
11:58.190 --> 12:07.683
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need to say why I thought that would be helpful if you picked your own colors because that shows that I'm probably not as professional as what he originally was led to believe.
12:08.795 --> 12:21.500
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, I believe after I thought about this all day, I really think that he probably was testing me because after I would do this if I was hiring someone, I would give them some test.
12:22.361 --> 12:25.262
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really don't care if they screw it up or they mess it up.
12:25.702 --> 12:30.024
[SPEAKER_00]: What I care about is how did they handle it?
12:31.062 --> 12:34.464
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how was I going to respond to his email?
12:35.244 --> 12:38.005
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's the real audition.
12:38.505 --> 12:40.746
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that it's necessarily going to be price point.
12:41.026 --> 12:46.929
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to price that out and race to the bottom and be the cheapest person just to get the job.
12:46.989 --> 12:53.392
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a huge order and we probably will have to buy more embroidery heads soon if we keep getting repeat orders.
12:53.732 --> 12:56.114
[SPEAKER_00]: which I will be like, thank you, Jesus, for that.
12:56.134 --> 12:57.335
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay?
12:58.436 --> 13:01.599
[SPEAKER_00]: But how did I handle my mistake?
13:02.279 --> 13:18.253
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where relationships are built, not necessarily on cost, but on am I going to take action, own what I should have done the first time, not make excuses and do better and build that relationship,
13:18.933 --> 13:25.258
[SPEAKER_00]: M I a critical thinker M I a critical thinker and I a critical thinker.
13:25.838 --> 13:28.801
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that first email I wasn't, but now I am.
13:29.321 --> 13:40.670
[SPEAKER_00]: So are you wondering what reply I hit what here's what the reply ended up being a little paraphrase, but I said something like, thank you for your attention to detail.
13:41.030 --> 13:42.351
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so clear to me.
13:42.868 --> 13:48.914
[SPEAKER_00]: that you care about getting this right and so do I. I'm going to be transparent with you.
13:49.254 --> 13:55.701
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never had a client come to me and ask for RGB specs to match the thread.
13:56.141 --> 13:57.502
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not an excuse.
13:57.743 --> 13:58.984
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just the truth.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Your email this morning was something I truly need to hear.
14:04.369 --> 14:09.812
[SPEAKER_00]: I can see that your team reached out to the supplier if no reply comes from the thread supplier.
14:10.413 --> 14:11.914
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll call them directly.
14:12.514 --> 14:17.757
[SPEAKER_00]: I really want to say I appreciate you saying something to me, not everyone would.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Kind regards Hope Yoder.
14:21.019 --> 14:21.559
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that?
14:21.839 --> 14:22.540
[SPEAKER_00]: I owned it.
14:23.160 --> 14:23.921
[SPEAKER_00]: I was real.
14:24.181 --> 14:25.121
[SPEAKER_00]: I was authentic.
14:25.342 --> 14:27.103
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't make excuse.
14:28.204 --> 14:31.907
[SPEAKER_00]: I left room for grace if he wanted to extend it to me.
14:32.667 --> 14:36.470
[SPEAKER_00]: And I made a commitment that I would do better.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
14:38.091 --> 14:40.033
[SPEAKER_00]: A little f-word feedback.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's a word in business that we all need to welcome.
14:44.396 --> 14:47.298
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of us are terrified of negative feedback.
14:47.338 --> 14:48.299
[SPEAKER_00]: We get defensive.
14:48.579 --> 14:54.424
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to fire back or we want to fire that client or we want to say, you know what, they're going to be too difficult to work with.
14:55.307 --> 14:59.009
[SPEAKER_00]: But in all honesty, that's going to make me grow.
14:59.169 --> 15:00.669
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to make me better.
15:00.689 --> 15:14.635
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to get me to where my dream is and my goals are faster, handling conflict, handling resolution, growing, taking time to think about where I failed and how I can do better.
15:15.035 --> 15:21.282
[SPEAKER_00]: feedback is one of the most valuable things that can happen to you, especially when it's not.
15:21.682 --> 15:22.823
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the greatest.
15:23.344 --> 15:24.886
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey guys, let's take a quick break.
15:25.206 --> 15:28.970
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you still winging it when a client calls you or job comes in?
15:29.290 --> 15:34.596
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I develop these three forms that we use in our business every day, and I wanted to tell you about them.
15:34.896 --> 15:36.977
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to guess or stay stuck.
15:37.017 --> 15:40.598
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to have a real system and a workflow to start with.
15:40.898 --> 15:42.418
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the client disclaimer.
15:42.538 --> 15:48.159
[SPEAKER_00]: If they bring you a form and your machine eats the garment, that's the kiss of death.
15:48.340 --> 15:50.960
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can have a disclaimer to protect you from that.
15:51.520 --> 15:53.281
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, there's the client approval form.
15:53.501 --> 16:01.803
[SPEAKER_00]: When you get that perfect looking logo digitized and you email a picture to your client, you want them to sign off on it, show that you have their approval.
16:02.143 --> 16:03.324
[SPEAKER_00]: proof and writing.
16:03.685 --> 16:05.767
[SPEAKER_00]: And third, this is the most important form.
16:06.007 --> 16:14.676
[SPEAKER_00]: When a job comes in, you're going to write down everything from the mighty hoop to the thread colors to the needle, the stabilizers, just everything.
16:15.076 --> 16:24.967
[SPEAKER_00]: So when they come back a year from now or two years from now and say, I want that exact same thing, same polo, same bat station, same bat channel, you don't go.
16:25.547 --> 16:27.289
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh, I have no idea what I did.
16:27.569 --> 16:34.415
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find the forms on our website, hopeyotor.com under the download embroidery section or they'll be linked in the show notes below.
16:35.336 --> 16:45.206
[SPEAKER_00]: I have 30 years of experience in the industry and I gave him homework and assigned him the job of finding his own threads, even though I didn't see it that way.
16:45.846 --> 16:49.350
[SPEAKER_00]: His email didn't break my confidence in the end.
16:49.590 --> 16:50.771
[SPEAKER_00]: It recalibrated.
16:51.371 --> 16:52.552
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a big difference.
16:53.032 --> 16:54.792
[SPEAKER_00]: If this happens to you, be like me.
16:54.972 --> 16:56.133
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to carry this.
16:56.273 --> 17:00.334
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to pick it up, learn from it and move forward.
17:00.794 --> 17:03.695
[SPEAKER_00]: Real growth holds someone up to a mirror.
17:04.396 --> 17:05.976
[SPEAKER_00]: You can change what you see.
17:06.296 --> 17:07.697
[SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't argue with it.
17:08.177 --> 17:11.018
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you guys are multitasking, stop.
17:12.045 --> 17:12.865
[SPEAKER_00]: come back to me.
17:13.566 --> 17:18.668
[SPEAKER_00]: If you were me and you were in my shoes and you got that email, how would you respond?
17:19.489 --> 17:20.830
[SPEAKER_00]: How quick would you respond?
17:21.470 --> 17:23.551
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you fire off with a defense?
17:24.712 --> 17:27.893
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you let the prospect go and say, I don't need that hassle.
17:27.973 --> 17:28.734
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not worth it.
17:28.754 --> 17:29.914
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't pay me enough.
17:30.334 --> 17:31.375
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you ignore it?
17:31.875 --> 17:35.237
[SPEAKER_00]: Or would you sit with it and look for the truth in it?
17:35.397 --> 17:35.977
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, only
17:41.440 --> 17:43.381
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still letting me build on the job.
17:43.701 --> 17:45.661
[SPEAKER_00]: I got several emails from him.
17:46.101 --> 17:52.103
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last one he said, I appreciate your attention to detail so far, so good.
17:52.503 --> 18:03.806
[SPEAKER_00]: That tells me that me taking time, taking some deep breaths that I answered him correctly, being honest, owning it and moving forward.
18:04.006 --> 18:09.267
[SPEAKER_00]: When you get that next feedback, will it sting or will it leave you unchanged?
18:11.465 --> 18:13.606
[SPEAKER_00]: to become who you want to be.
18:13.766 --> 18:14.666
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm choosing to grow.
18:14.726 --> 18:16.467
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to build a better process.
18:16.507 --> 18:25.670
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to be that person that he chooses to build a relationship with who takes his problem of having different embrothers not reflect his brand.
18:26.130 --> 18:26.990
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not there yet.
18:27.310 --> 18:27.951
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm close.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm closer today that I was yesterday.
18:30.672 --> 18:31.492
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's enough.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So if this happens to you, don't beat yourself up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Use that feedback in a positive way to do better.
18:40.915 --> 18:47.298
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode has no ending because I'm still in the works of trying to get that relationship built to get the job.
18:47.738 --> 18:48.639
[SPEAKER_00]: So stay tuned.
18:48.679 --> 18:51.440
[SPEAKER_00]: You might hear me talk about that on a future podcast.
18:51.840 --> 18:58.504
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've liked this podcast, do us a favor and help us reach more people by leaving a five-star review on
18:59.444 --> 19:02.205
[SPEAKER_00]: Apple podcasts, that helps more than you know.
19:02.585 --> 19:07.807
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to invite you all to join me in my studio in Sarasota, Florida.
19:08.127 --> 19:11.409
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an embroidery prophet academy and you can come two ways.
19:11.689 --> 19:14.850
[SPEAKER_00]: You can come in a group setting where we take eight or less people.
19:15.310 --> 19:24.857
[SPEAKER_00]: And we spend the whole weekend getting your systems and your framework and your techniques so you can go back home and you could start making money today.
19:25.277 --> 19:38.546
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if you want it to be all about you, we have a one-to-one training where you can come over a weekend and we're going to dive deep into you and build your niche and your systems and your framework.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Hope Yoder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Emberdory Profit Podcast and I'll see you here next time.
