What NOT to Do...

I encourage you to click on over to WeddingBee to follow this post. Wow. What a stunning example of what NOT to do as a vendor in refutting a negative blog post. Everything about the way this vendor handled the situation was wrong - and now it is out there for the world to see (although it is remaining anonymous for now). But it is a great learning experience and interesting to see play out. Be sure to read the growing list of comments from brides as well as vendors (over 40 within the first 30 minutes of Bee's post! UPDATE: 71+ and growing in the firfst 24 hours from real brides and a few vendors!!). No one is sympathetic to the 'wronged' vendor - all because of his unprofessional reaction.

One of my husband Patrick's 'quotes to live by' (and he has many that you will hear along the way!) is that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. So true, so true. This whole situation could have been handled so much better by this vendor - and with a few deep breaths and more than a few edits and re-writes to the email it could have elicited a totally different response.

Of interest - read one of the lines from Bee in this post, "If you google the name of the vendor above, the Weddingbee comments about him show up as the second result! So negative comments left on blogs and messageboards can definitely impact a company’s business."

Just about everything that each of us does in business is 'out there' for the world to see.

Weddings (and related vendors) are probably among the most talked about, recapped, critiqued events that are shared online.

It's not going away - in fact getting more transparent each and every day. You will never beat it - but you can join it - by representing yourself as a consumate professional each and every day.

Don't be this vendor!