 Welcome to The Journey. Today we're going to talk about how to reduce stress when dealing with difficult people. I'm Emma, this is my co-host, Sam, and when it comes to dealing with difficult people... They don't have to be difficult to manage. Alright, Sam, so I know you deal with customers, so tell me about a time or an experience we had to deal with a difficult customer. What'd you do? Well, sometimes you have to properly reset expectations. Some customers may not understand exactly what their service entails. So you have to first hear them out, let them vent, let them talk, don't interrupt. And then once they're finally finished, repeat back to them summarizing, hey, I've heard you, I understand, and you are totally valid in how you feel. But then the next thing, which is more important, you come up with a plan that within the scope of your service, you mutually benefit from what you're about to offer. Say how you're going to partner together, give them a little bit of homework, and then finally wrap it up by letting them know you're going to take care of it for them. So I remember a time when a customer of mine, let's call him Joe, he called in and he was expecting us at GoDaddy Social to post every day on social media. And that's not actually the case, and that's not what we offer. So I made sure that I was able to reset and align his expectations that fit our service model. So how did you keep Joe on board? How did you keep him cool? I mean, did you have to educate around this topic? What would you do? Well, I had the first, of course, acknowledge the fact that I understood where he was coming from, and I wanted to understand what did he want to accomplish. In order to actually go through the steps of how we're going to fix this, I want to know what are you going to accomplish. And then as the subject matter expert, we were able to within the scope of our service offering, give him the steps of how he's going to still get what he wanted, but not necessarily in the way he wanted to do it. So here are some steps that I use to be able to keep myself together while receiving that call. First, collect myself, take a deep breath, connect, center myself, and make sure that I don't let it rattle me. Or he reaches out to me for a little guided yoga meditation. Let's now join together. Take a deep breath in, hold for three seconds, and release. And one more time. Take a deep breath in. Now for six seconds, don't pass out. And release. How do you feel? I hit it, but nice. All right. So you mentioned listening and really taking the time to think about what Joe in this example is saying versus what am I saying I'm going to say next. So I imagine there's a ton of empathy involved here, right? Of course. You want to make sure that you know where they're coming from because in order to actually make some headway and connect with this person, you have to take it all in and really focus on them. It's not about you. It's about them. So the next thing is you want to think outside of the box, figure out a way of coming up with a mutually beneficial solution and allow that person to partner with you. Remember, it's not you against them, but it's us working together to solve their problem, which is really your problem, too. This reminds me of reframing. This is something my mom taught me recently on her visit out to California. Hey, instead of sweating this, just reframe it. See how you could look at this differently. I love that advice. So the next thing is you want to find a supportive community, people that are like you that are going through the same struggles that you know you can connect with and express yourself and let them know, hey, I'm struggling just like you. And you can get support that way, too. Here at GoDaddy, we have a lot of different opportunities and groups where we can all feel included. So we want to hear from you. Comment below and let us know how do you deal with the difficulties. Also, be sure to like this video and subscribe to our channel. Also, don't forget, ring that bell so you're the first to know about our next video coming out. So this is The Journey. See you next time.