19 Comments

Love the mental filing system - we used to have a saying in the office to file anything that didn’t add value to the project “in the circular filing cabinet” … on big mail days we had to empty it more than once :)

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Oh my god yes. I told people about my Substack in a language learning community on Reddit (a community that I usually enjoy reading and learning from) and I got SO many rotten tomatoes thrown at me. Granted, I am doing something outrageous - I've set out to learn 12 languages in 12 months. But I was surprised at how hurtful it was to read all the negative comments. Some of them followed me to my Substack to leave negative comments on my posts (which I deleted.) You're right if you get haters that means people are getting triggered and that's a good thing. The negativity felt so awful that I deleted that post. You know what? I'm gonna go back there and post it again (and not read the comments), because I know that in addition to the loud haters there are lots of quiet people who just might be interested in reading what I have to share.

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Twelve languages in twelve months! Wow, just wow! New sub!!!!! 🙌

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Yay 😀 🧡

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Another nice piece of valuable content from Karen. Your newsletter audit looks like it will definitely be helpful. Have a good one!

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Haven't got any yet, Karen, but I will save this til I (hopefully) need it one day!

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Haha I've had plenty of trolls/haters on Medium in the last 5 years but never here. Coincidentally, I did have my very first "missed appointment" just last night though. She scheduled on my booking system and then missed our Zoom yesterday. This morning I woke up to emails from her saying she was sitting there waiting for me on Zoom. She showed up at 5am, not pm 😁 But she wasn't angry therefore, not a hater lol.

The way I see it...if you have haters, you have arrived 😂

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I am working on a post about workplace bullies, so not the same context, but although it's unpleasant to be at the receiving end I have always regarded it as an indication of my success

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critics can actually be GOOD, as long as they're not just firing random shots to draw attention. Just try not to express a desire to smack them with a rolled - up newspaper !

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As a dog behaviourist who practises only reward based methods, I am forever getting haters on social media who seem to think you can not train dogs without using aversives. I have learned to let them hate - they only make themselves look silly. Meanwhile I have better things to be filling my time with.

We can't please everyone and there is no point trying to bother. Worry about the ones you care about and who are worth your time, and let the rest hate on by.

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I love it that you've "learned to let them hate" I still have a long way to go to get there :)

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You will - it takes a while not to take things personally, and to let things wash over you. But so long as you know that you are doing good things, what haters think is neither here nor there . They are not important xx

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I remember they once told me very directly:" I don't think you can attract any readers right now with a newsletter: why would you write it?". Naturally you takes it as you want, but I think it's important to remember the reason behind the criticism and the ability to distinguish the "good" ones from the "free" ones aimed only at undermining your efforts.

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I just sent out my first newsletter via Substack, where I explained what it is and how it works, and that you can turn on paid subscriptions to actually earn money as a writer - but that mine is free for now.

Got a reply hating on Substack as a model, on paying for newsletters at all because they should all be free like they always have been AND letting me know I'm part of all that is wrong with the world! 😮

Made me laugh.

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oh wow, that's rough. And this arsehole was actually hanging out ON SUBSTACK, in the model they supposedly hate. what an idiot!

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It’s rare that I get haters. Instead, I get people attempting to get free services. Years ago, it made me mad, which attracted more freebie seekers. This taught me to let it go because at least I’m getting noticed. I’ve always done my best to be polite and I’ll give links to my blogs that might help them. I also copy and paste one of my standard replies with a URL to a service.

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Have you thought about trying to turn your haters into super-fans?

We used to have a Customer Service training checkpoint at my last company (which I wrote) where, in order to complete the training, you had to turn an Angry Customer into a Super-Fan!

It's amazing how often that could be achieved, and it certainly takes the edge of any new ones coming in.

It's a lot easier to change an opinion than it is to create one from indifference. Give it a go! 😃

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Not yet in my life, but it sounds like something I need to wish for…

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Way too early in the game for me, but I can dream!

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