Life Lesson 101: Treat Everyone the Same

Go back to grade school for a minute. Think about what your parents, teachers, church folk and Mr. Rogers told you. Treat everyone the same, even if they are different.

This holds true in the strongest sense when it comes to running your business. Seth Godin talks about it in his restaurant rant, The Bad Table, and I think a lot of what he says can be true for small business and the music industry.

Seth says,

"who should get your best effort? Should it be the new customer who you just might be able to convert into a long-term customer? Or should it be the loyal customer who is already valuable?"

His reply,

"Sorry, but the answer is this: you can't have a bad table."

Musicians, you cannot have a bad show. Someone paid money to see you perform, wherever it may be from a dive bar to Hard Rock Live.

Businesses, you cannot set up a bad meeting in a bad setting. You need to win over everyone, especially at the start.

You cannot wait till you release your next flyer, next t-shirt, next website launch to make a first impression.

You cannot afford for your website or RSS feeds to go down. Your loyal followers may jump ship. It's easy to get lost amongst the 1,000's of blog we follow.

You cannot afford to get that great suit for the next interview. Get it for this interview.

Don't clean up your office tomorrow, clean it up today.

Don't skimp on your emails just to get them done. Make them personal, professional and respond to everyone. If Gary Vaynerchuk can do it, so can you.

You get my drift. Everyone that sees your business is making an impression. I love Olive Garden but everytime I go back, I never get that great experience that I got in the past.

Your employees are your front line. If they suck, your company and your brand sucks. Just because a couple looks like the "non-tipping" or "I don't have money for your services" type, they are still going to talk, blog and discuss your brand. It's 2008 people, stop hiding.

Make sure your brand tastes like champagne and not flat club soda.

Till next time!