The Tide is Turning

It seems like the first year and half we experienced a lot of negative feedback. It wasn't because we were doing anything different than we're doing now. I think it's just because we hadn't built trust yet and people are naturally skeptical of new businesses, especially an online matchmaking business. It doesn't help that there are so many sites out there that are not conducting themselves in a godly fashion.

Also, part of the problem is that a lot of singles have come from broken relationships and therefore have a lot of hurts and scars as a result. As Drs. Tom and Bev Rodgers say, "Hurting people, hurt people."

Early on we heard from a Christian speaker that employed the "hurdle approach." If the comment is hurtful and coming from a hurt person, "jump over it" as if it were a hurdle. In other words, don't allow it to be a brick wall. Once we learned this technique and how not to take their comments personally, we have been able to let it go and move forward. This isn't to say, we haven't learned anything from the negativity. We agreed from the beginning to evaluate the criticism and if there are substantial points that we can improve on, we will definitely take action to try to improve.

The good news is, we were just commenting on our return trip from Detroit that it seems that the tide is turning. The negative comments are minimal and instead we receive more encouragement and appreciation for what we're doing. Rarely a day goes by that we are not thanked by someone for what we are doing to help singles... either by email, phone call, or Facebook message. I think now that some time has gone by and people are getting more familiar with us and realizing that we are real people who care about them, they are changing their skepticism. We also feel that the Mentoring Services have helped people understand that we do have some valuable advice to offer. We hear quite often that we are now considered "experts," which is what Linda and I have worked and studied to achieve.

So, we are finding that credibility isn't achieved overnight. It's important to "hang in there" and keep on keeping on and things will come together in time. Only God knows what new changes will come about in another year.

Make it a great day and use your words to encourage everyone you can. It might just what they needed to help them persevere.

Kim
Cache' Connections