This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Oh my gosh, our listener got a mean email. Don't you hate those? Did you ever get a mean email? It's just super not fun. The other day I actually got a nasty message from someone as well, but it ended up turning into a good experience.
So here's a little positive story before I introduce the listener experience, which was not highly positive. I got a complaint from somebody or just a little bit of a snippy email, and I just decided not to respond to it. I just thought, well, okay, I know this person a little bit, and I think they're kind of projecting something. And the next day they wrote back, unprompted, to apologize. And it was just really simple.
They were just like, hey man, I'm sorry. You know what, I just, I was having a bad day, or I forget exactly what they said, but just the fact that they kind of regrouped on it, I was like, listen, I get it. We are all on a journey. And that's what I thought about that experience. I was like, I really appreciate the circle back, and it's all good, you know?
Sometimes these negative experiences can turn positive. Now, as I said, you know, our listener here has a different experience. They've got an email from a competitor, in fact, who seems to think that they're the real inventor of the board game our listener is selling. The competitor thinks that they were the ones who made it, even though our listener knows this isn't true. So should they listen to their competitor?
Does this complaint have merit? Either way, what should happen next? That's what we'll look at after the message from our sponsor. [Music]
Hey, Chris, this is Tim. And I've been listening to the show after reading "Side Hustle" a couple of years ago.
I sell a board game that got funded through crowdfunding a while back. Ever since, I've received lots of nice emails, and also a lot of strange ones. People I don't know ask for advice, which isn't bad, but sometimes they can be pushy. Even worse, I got a nasty email from a competitor who put out a game four months after mine went on the market. They say I stole their idea, but my game was out first.
Apparently, they'd had some of the game's mechanics detailed in a blog post that came out earlier, but I hadn't seen it. I also didn't know who they were until they wrote me. Should I be worried about this? How should I respond? Thanks for any advice you can give me.
[Music]
Wow, thank you for sharing this experience. And I'm so sorry that you're having this experience. I wish that did not happen, but we know in life, sometimes people just get upset or they choose to send these kinds of messages. Should you be worried? Should you respond?
How should you respond? I think the question was, you know, if it were me, most likely I would try sending a polite response, you know, relatively brief, but just trying to like keep the peace. I wouldn't really touch that question of stealing their idea just in case they do plan or decide at some point to take that complaint further. I would just send that polite response and say, you know, I wish them every success as well. And just kind of, you know, you're trying to stay in your own lane, do your own thing.
Your goal here is to deescalate the confrontation, perhaps even create a positive interaction out of it. That's kind of the moonshot goal. But if nothing else, at least have some resolution so that you can go on with your life. And if it gets worse, if I keep coming back at you, I think it's okay to just stop responding. It really doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong here.
So, no, I wouldn't worry too much. And I would also say, congratulations on your successful Kickstarter. Don't let anyone take that joy and that success away from you. Like you said at the beginning, you've received lots of nice emails. Focus on those nice emails.
Focus on those nice customers and keep building. Keep building. That's my advice to you, my advice to myself and to everyone in our community. Try to make something, right? It's fun to make things.
All right. If you have a question or something you're going through, sidehustleschool.com/questions, let me know. I am cheering you on whatever you're up to in the world, wherever you're at in the world. I hope you take some time today for yourself and I hope you'll come back tomorrow for a new episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
