Author And Expert Dean Graziosi: Never Ignore The 'Loud Minority' In PR

This week I interviewed Dean Graziosi, the popular real estate expert who’s written 6 books, including several New York Times best sellers, and is seen by millions of viewers on TV through 15 years of daily appearances. His visibility has been growing steadily over a period of more than a decade. Our topic: when an entrepreneur becomes highly visible, how should you handle the rare but inevitable appearance of negative or occasionally even scathing remarks?

I had a much different post in mind from our interview, but then I received a message from Graziosi so compelling I am breaking with tradition and offering his message to my column readers direct. Graziosi’s words on this topic have compelled me greatly. As a highly visible entrepreneur who receives thousands of public remarks and reviews every week, here is what Dean had to say:

Early on in my career, as a struggling entrepreneur trying to make my way through the craziness, with everyone telling me that I was nuts for trying to do my own thing, I discovered a group of people that the rest of the world might not know exists. I call them the Loud Minority.

Over 20 years ago in my little town of upstate New York, when I was doing my first real estate deals with minimal money, begging, borrowing, and doing everything I could to raise the funds, I found an adversary that was just as hard as my financial hurdle to overcome: The Loud Minority. They appeared when I would go to the local planning board for a public hearing on approval to subdivide land in to smaller parcels and build homes. In a town of 8,000 people, typically three or four of the “loud minority” would show up to the public meetings ready to fight. Some who showed up just didn’t like me; they had disdain for me because I was developing in their community. To them, any growth was wrong. They didn’t know me, the type of person I was, they didn’t know my struggles, and they didn’t care to. They just disliked me for what I was doing. Others didn’t like the fact that I was making money in their backyard; one even stated it out loud at a meeting. Others had logistical worries. They didn’t want cars going through their backyards, or they didn’t want people driving too fast in their neighborhood.

The majority of people loved the new families and homes coming in to the area, but they didn’t speak up. Most entrepreneurs, unfortunately, overlook the power the loud minority has. In my little town, a literal three people stopped a multi-million dollar condo project I was trying to develop that would have benefited local schools, the merchants in town and added significant tax revenue for this town.

Fast forward a decade or two, add a world of constant contact through social media and the Internet and their voices get even louder. This week, for example, I have read more than 3,200 positive posts about what I do: my companies, my books, my education, teaching people how to have a successful mindset or work in real estate. But not dissimilar to my early days in a little town hall, there was a handful of people who hated me and told me how bad I was as a human being. There was one who had gotten my product or service and simply did not like it. When your business grows and more people are exposed to what you do, this loud minority will expand. The way you handle it can either hurt your company or can be fuel to expand and dominate your market. However, I believe it is an absolute benefit to hear these voices as a way to take your business, your career, and your clients’ experience to another level.

I’ll back up for a moment here and dare to say that my dear friend Tony Robbins has changed more people’s lives than any other person on a level that unless you have read his books, gone through his courses, or been to one of his live events, you can’t comprehend. When I go watch  Tony speak, I forget we are friends and in moments I become a student. To watch him deliver capabilities to 7,000 people at once that allow them to break through and jump on a path to becoming their best selves over a four-day period is nothing short of miraculous.

I was in Dallas, Texas not that long ago for an Unleash the Power Within (UPW) event. 7,000 people walked across coals and broke through a huge fear as a catalyst of being mentally prepared to go to the next level in life. Out of those 7,000, a handful got some blisters on their feet. The media went crazy. All over the Internet stories appeared about how Tony Robbins had burned people. Some 5-7 experienced a few blisters while 7,000 found a bigger purpose for their lives. When I saw that press it made me extremely sad because I know what that guy has done for my life and for millions of others.

But guess what the media was focused on? The loud minority. Why didn’t they interview any of the 7,000 people whose lives were positively affected? Even those who paused for selfies and ended with blisters can’t deny the benefits they received beyond their sore feet.

Here is the worst part. Another group of people saw that news online, people who have never been to a Tony event, don’t know anything that he does, and just said, “Yeah, that guru has them under his spell and he should be put in jail.” These are people who don’t know his heart or intentions. Yet like he says in his new documentary, “I’m not your Guru,” he doesn't take the loud minority to heart. Instead, his message is about empowering people with the tools for a better life.

I refer to that example because I believe that with all my years of being in business and contact with millions of people, I have discovered there are three types of negativity that come your way through the Loud Minority. If you are prepared, you can learn from the experience and go to another level. The negativity that I've received, which has been a fraction of 1% of the people’s lives I've been involved in, has made my company better and has made me a better person as well.

The first group is those who’ve never bought anything from you, those who have never had a bad situation with your company. They simply don’t like you because of some of the reasons I learned back in my early twenties of doing subdivisions. Maybe it’s because you have exposure, your company grew, and they think you are making too much money and they’re not, they could be jealous or they think you’re a greedy capitalist. They have all of the reasons and all of their own stories and beliefs as to why you or your company should be scrutinized. They may judge you immediately and write the most horrific things.

Those are difficult, but all you can do is stay true to your message, stay true to who you are, and focus on how actual clients feel. As I have matured, these are the people I feel most sad for. With that much negatively in their lives, you know that all areas of their lives are a struggle and happiness probably eludes them. I have gained the ability to look past their words and wish them well.

The second group is the one you can learn from the most. They are the ones that bought something or went to your company and feel they did not have the experience they deserved. Maybe that’s not true. Maybe you gave them everything they asked for and they were expecting more. You sold them a chicken dinner, and they expected filet mignon and a lobster.

But sometimes, people fall through the cracks. Sometimes, sales are too pushy. Sometimes, companies make mistakes, especially when you serve millions of people. This is where the loud minority can help your business grow and expand. That is when you can realize that instead of saying “to hell with them, they don’t know what they are talking about,” you realize that in most cases, even if you feel they are wrong, there is still a hint of truth in every post. Simply look through their eyes, dig deeper, flesh out what happened during their experience and you can judge if it’s worth making adjustments so it won’t happen again.

People buy from you, love you, adore you, refer you, and will keep buying from you if they feel understood. It is easy to take care of the top 10% who just love you no matter what you do. It’s almost impossible to fix the people who hate you without buying from you. But some of the people in the middle can give you the most valuable feedback to take your company to the next level. They are the ones who might be loud about it—they may be over-exaggerating their bad experience—but remember, they could have big or even small nuggets of truths. Instead of taking it personally, learn from it and grow. Of the tens of thousands of posts about me, I feel fortunate that 99.9% are amazing. But the ones that hurt and sometimes gave me a stomachache, are the ones that made me a better leader and have compelled my drive to improve.

The third negativity is the hardest. These are the people who attack you for profit. They are predatory marketers who create sites and negativity to profit themselves. They can come in the form of fake review sites. They feed off of your advertising and marketing to create as much negativity as they can and then do one of two things: 1) Ask you for sort of an extortion fee to allow you to respond to people, delete fake posts or let actual positive reviews come through. 2) Say how bad your company is and then suggest another competitor as a better solution. All the while, people are unaware the site gets paid as an affiliate every time people click on the so-called “better service.” They are not truly suggesting better; they are pushing traffic away from you and towards another provider for fees.

Some of these sites have cleaned up their acts, but many still exist and care nothing about who they are hurting. These are the hardest to deal with. If this happens to you there are a few things I suggest. First, get an attorney who understands the Communications Decency Act and Lanham Act (Lanham is the trademark statute that says if a competitor is making misrepresentations in its advertising about your product or service you can sue for damages) to see if they are breaking laws. Secondly, I have had great luck with writing a truthful letter to the owner of sites like these letting them know how much I care for my clients and asking what we can do to work together to help consumers even more.

As horrible as it sounds to engage at any level, don’t make a negative site owner mad until you know the facts. For spite, they could apply even more negative pressure on your business. Instead, do your homework and respond strategically in the ways your attorneys advise.

As an entrepreneur, I would strongly recommend understanding there is always going to be a loud minority. There will always be a group of people who just don’t like what you do, even if they have never used your product or service. There will be some people who will complain no matter what you do, and how you handle those complaints can be the difference between doing ok and thriving. You could ignore them, or you could listen to it, search out any truths and get better. Change policies. Change procedures. Obsess on how your client feels through their entire experience with your company. That is where your next level may be hiding.

I have had the opportunity to go from financial hardship, growing up and living in a bathroom with my dad when I was a kid, to generating hundreds of millions of dollars through my real estate investing companies and my brand. I feel extremely blessed, but I never want to take my success for granted. This is why I never want to stop living inside my clients’ and prospects’ heads. I want to answer the questions they are already asking and make sure they have a good experience with my company and products in every case.

Will we mess up along the way? Sometimes. But we don’t ignore it and you shouldn't, either. Learn from these experiences and grow. Those who thrive in today’s world understand that much of your success will be about how you make your customers feel. Starbucks is a great example of this. They are a company in the people business that also happens to serve coffee. Be in the people business. Your product comes second. Have the courage to listen to the “loud minority” in your sector, and your courage in doing so will propel your success.