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Rules of Engagements
11 Plays5 years ago
This week's episode is about a recent business opportunity, the experience I had and the lessons I learned. I give five rules of engagement while doing business.
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Recorded, Produced and Edited by: Éliane Anita
Track Produced by: Devo Beats
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Transcript
Introduction and New Year Wishes
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome to the Alion and Edith podcast, where we get down to business every week. I'm your host, Alion, and I'm so excited to have you join me for this week's podcast. This is my first podcast of the year, so I want to officially wish you a happy new year. I know that we are about 23 days into the new year, so I just wanted to officially wish you a happy new year from me because you haven't heard it from me yet.
Introducing 'Rules of Engagement' and Business Opportunity
00:00:44
Speaker
As I stated, this is the first podcast of the year and I want to kick things off with talking about a subject called Rules of Engagement. I'm going to give you a little bit of story time and tell you about an opportunity that was presented to me and I want to give you a little bit of background and then I'm going to give you some lessons that I learned from this particular situation.
00:01:08
Speaker
And I want to give you lay a few rules down as you deal in business or any kind of leadership or just in life, how you should be expected to be treated and what you should do before you enter into any kind of agreement or partnership. So let's get into the story.
Relevant Cosmetics and Potential Collaboration
00:01:27
Speaker
You guys know that I am a business owner. I own a company called Relevant Cosmetics. I make cosmetics for myself and others, so I actually have a product line under the name of Relevant Cosmetics. I also have several clients that I make cosmetics for and help them launch their brand.
00:01:49
Speaker
So I was up on my company's social media page and I looked and I seen that I had a message from someone that had DM me. So I often check DMs from my business account because I need to make sure that it's not a customer that's trying to reach out or
00:02:14
Speaker
if it's just anybody that wanted to give any kind of feedback about anything. So I like to typically check those things and stay on top of all of that and respond quickly. So I looked in my company's DM. I seen that I had a message from a young lady. I am not going to
00:02:33
Speaker
give specifics of the company or the persons involved. I'm just going to talk kind of in general because of legal issues. I don't want to be sued, so I just want to make sure that I am doing my due diligence and being honorable with that.
00:02:49
Speaker
I had a DM from a young lady who owns a online beauty supply store and she reached out to me and she said, I am obsessed with your brand and I would love to schedule some time to sit down and talk with you, my vice president, and I would like to talk with you to potentially see if we can get your product featured on our website.
00:03:17
Speaker
I don't think I've heard of the owner of the company specifically, but I did hear about one of the businesses. I am aware of one of the businesses that she owns. I did my due diligence, did research to make sure that she was who she said she was and that it just wasn't something fake. I sent out my information, my contact info.
00:03:40
Speaker
After about a week, I heard from them. So days went by and I hadn't heard anything. And then about a week later, I get a phone call.
Evaluating the Business Proposal
00:03:50
Speaker
So I get this phone call. It was unplanned. It was unexpected. It was very random.
00:03:56
Speaker
And I am now on the phone with the vice president of this particular company. She's given me the spiel about her business or the business and how it started, why it started, and what would be required for me if I was to sell my product on the side and, you know, just different formalities. And this was about an hour long conversation. I mean, we were on the phone for about an hour, a little bit more than an hour.
00:04:19
Speaker
actually. And she's given me rapid information very quickly. So we get to the end of the conversation and I asked her, you know, the questions that I had in mind. I had my due diligence and did research and I just wanted, I had, obviously I had questions. I want to know what my brand is getting itself into and what's required of me. Questions about the information that she presented to me. So
00:04:45
Speaker
I asked all of my questions and then finally I asked her, could she send me all of this information that she had gave to me or I was curious to know if her company had like a pamphlet put together or could we do like a brief recap because I needed to talk it over with my business coach and my other advisors that people that I consider advisors to me.
00:05:12
Speaker
uh concerning my business so she told me oh um i can't sing you anything in writing we don't do emails um you can find everything on our website and um you can go from there so i was like okay well you can't get an email can't get any uh
00:05:30
Speaker
correspondence from you guys. So I told her, I said, well, let me have a day. Let me get in contact with my business coach and my other advisors and we'll see. And she let me know that they were looking to close some deals very soon and that by the end of the day, my spot that they wanted me to take could be gone. So I needed to make a really quick decision very soon. So I did let her know that I needed a little bit of time.
00:05:58
Speaker
And I will be calling them back as soon as I can. So she was like, okay, that's fine. So we hang up the phone. I'll talk it over with my business coach. I talk it over with my other two advisors. And I made a decision that this would not be a good business deal for me.
00:06:17
Speaker
I'm not saying that the business is bad. I'm just saying that it wouldn't be a good business move for me and where my company stands. So I called her back the next day. I didn't want to... I respected her time, so I did not want to wait until the middle of the day or the end of the business. I wanted to let her know that I had came to a decision.
00:06:38
Speaker
and I wanted to be prompt and respond. So I called her, I spoke with her, and I respectfully declined. She asked me why did I decline the offer and I gave her my reasons and she went on to say that, well, if you look, you'll see that our brands sell out pretty rapidly, but it's okay. We're going to continue to aggregate brands anyway.
00:07:02
Speaker
So it was very nasty and how she said that at the end and I just said well you know it's okay and I wish you guys the best of luck and I hope that you know things go well for you in your future business endeavors and then that was the end of the conversation. And I walked away learning a lot of things from this. The first thing I learned was
00:07:22
Speaker
respect of time. Now, if we were to technically speak, technically I have the same title and position that Bill Gates has for Microsoft.
00:07:37
Speaker
He is the CEO of Microsoft. I am the CEO of relevant cosmetics. Now, I don't really pump my head up and try to make myself feel better about myself by calling myself a CEO. I don't get off into all of that. But if we were speaking technically, I am a CEO.
00:08:00
Speaker
And just as you couldn't pick up the phone and randomly call Bill Gates, why do you think that it's okay to randomly pick up the phone and call me?
00:08:14
Speaker
What it says is that I don't value your time enough that my time is more important than your time. The point of reaching out to someone to set up a phone call is to make sure that that person is completely available, that they're able to listen and think through, that you're able to voice your
00:08:39
Speaker
your company's vision and voice, your opinion and all of those things. Like you set up time and dedicate time to people so that both of you all could have a conversation, a well-informed conversation. When they called me out just randomly, one day unexpectedly, it was almost insulting because it was like,
00:09:03
Speaker
If you were dealing with a bigger brand than my company is, you would have asked that person for time or that CEO for time and you would have made sure that you was within that time guideline. So it's a mutual respect when you're dealing with business that you have to have for everybody. It doesn't matter how big the brand is or how small it is.
00:09:27
Speaker
If you don't respect that brand or if you don't respect the owner or the vice president or whomever you have to speak to time enough, then you shouldn't be in business with them. And if someone does not respect your time, I don't care if you have 10 followers.
00:09:42
Speaker
I don't care if you have 10 million followers. Your time is valuable. I work full time for a company. I also work full time for my company. Time is of the essence to me. It's very important. Every moment, every second that I'm up, woke, alive, well, moving around, every minute counts because that's a minute that I can be focusing my time and energy into something else.
Key Rules: Agreements and Research
00:10:12
Speaker
The random phone call, the out of the blue phone call was extremely disrespectful and it really showed that they did not have a respect for a time. As a lesson from me,
00:10:26
Speaker
I learned that if someone can't set up a specific time slot with you to make sure that you are available and that you can actively listen to them, then it's not worth going into business with them and make it mandatory like business owners, leaders, mothers, fathers, whoever you are that's listening to this podcast.
00:10:49
Speaker
Make it mandatory that people respect your time. Make it mandatory that people respect your energy. Make it mandatory that people respect your knowledge and your wisdom because you could be pouring these same resources, these invaluable resources, and time is something that you just don't get back.
00:11:06
Speaker
So make sure that you're investing these resources into people that's going to respond with respect and honor with what you've given them. So do not allow people to waste your time. Do not allow people to impede upon your time.
00:11:25
Speaker
Even when I reached out to one of my advisors, she is one of my advisors is a mother to me. She's a mentor. She's so much to me and I have easy access to her. I know where she lives. I have a phone number. I can pick up the phone and call her, but I did not pick up the phone and call her. I sent her a text message because I knew that I needed to reach out to her for advisement.
00:11:50
Speaker
So I sent her a text message and I asked, do you have 15 minutes to talk to me? I'm in the middle of a hard decision and I just need to voice out my opinion and let you know what's going on and I just need to hear some wisdom from you. I didn't pick up the phone and call her because I had access to her.
00:12:09
Speaker
I could have, but I did not do that because I respect her time. So I text her, she told me she was available and then I picked up the phone and gave her a call. It's because I honor her and I value her time and the same should be true for you and yours. The second lesson that I learned is that if people can't give you anything in writing,
00:12:32
Speaker
then you shouldn't be doing business with them. So many times people get stiffed in business because they're very excited and you hear all this good news and you can see the light and you can see how this can work out and all of this great stuff but you have nothing in writing. So you jump head first into something and you find yourself in the end losing out because you have nothing in writing.
00:13:00
Speaker
Make business requires paperwork. A part of business is paperwork. So if someone cannot send you a brochure or they can't send you a PDF or they can't list their services and products to you if they're interested or intrigued in what you have to offer or they want your business and clientele,
00:13:21
Speaker
they should be able to offer you some form of paperwork. I'm working on a project with someone and we're dealing with another company. Before we had an official conversation, I had an interview conversation with them just to see what this company was about. Then we scheduled an official meeting.
00:13:47
Speaker
Before we got to the official meeting, this particular company had sent me a non-disclosure agreement. They had sent me tons of brochures about their company, what they have to offer, their years of experience. I mean, they had it all rolled out for me and the person that I'm working on this project with immediately. This is before we had an official conversation.
00:14:11
Speaker
So if this is the high level of standard that this company offers, why couldn't this other company offer it? And I understand that companies are different. They vary from company to company. But if you want someone to work with you and you want someone to do business with you, you want people to invest money with you,
00:14:33
Speaker
You need to make sure that you have at least at least at bare minimum what kind of services you offer and what you plan to offer this person and begin to show them metrics. Give them information to show them, hey, if you made this investment, if you make this investment with my company, this is the results that most people see.
00:14:56
Speaker
So don't just talk to people and give them factitious numbers and don't allow people to just rattle all to you what they believe would be a good idea for you and your brand. Make them give that to you in writing and also to ask them for data, ask them for research, ask them for points so that you know exactly what you're getting yourself into. Anybody that's doing honest business will come up front and say, hey, here's my paperwork.
00:15:24
Speaker
Here's my numbers. Here's what I have to offer. They're going to do that because they want you to trust them. Anytime someone does not give you anything in writing, that means that they're not trustworthy and you therefore should not risk your business, risk your life, risk your savings, whatever, into trying to make a relationship be built with this company or this person.
Advice on Decision-Making and Trusting Instincts
00:15:47
Speaker
So always get whatever it is, whatever you guys discuss, get it in writing. Make sure they send you an email immediately. Most businesses work like that. Hey, I just want to send you an email to recap what we talked about in our previous conversation.
00:16:03
Speaker
Get everything in writing. The third thing I did was do research. I learned to do research. I said before I even had any kind of conversation with them, I did research. I looked up the founder.
00:16:18
Speaker
I looked up the vice president, I looked up what they post, who comment. I read several comments. I looked to see who they touch, who is a part of their brand, why I dug up as much as I can within those few days because I wanted to know what my company was getting itself into. One thing I realized was that this company did not even do research on me.
00:16:45
Speaker
When I had a conversation when the young lady called me over the phone, she didn't even know my name. She had no clue who I was. And she was like, I'm just going to call you Relevant Cosmo. Relevant Cosmo is my Instagram tag. It's my Twitter tag for my business. Relevant Cosmo is not alien.
00:17:09
Speaker
And Aliana's not relevant Cosmo. They couldn't even address me by my name, like by my first name, because they had not did their research. But this, but in the initial message, she had already said, I'm obsessed with your brand. How can you be obsessed with something and you don't know the people? And you wanna sit down and hold a conversation and you want people to be intrigued and do business with you and you can't even address the CEO by her name.
00:17:39
Speaker
You didn't do your research. You don't know who I am. You don't know anything about me. You don't know anything about the brand. You didn't do your research. So it goes to show you that if people are making willy-nilly decisions, like this is their brand, this is a big deal. Like before I looked at their brand, I'm like, this is a really big brand. It's a really big brand. They're doing really good. They're making major headway.
00:18:09
Speaker
I was doing the research. I wanted to know what they were about. If you are willing to risk your brand's reputation, your brand's look and feel with someone you don't know, that goes to show that you're doing bad business.
00:18:27
Speaker
And I'm not criticizing, I'm not trying to criticize them, but I'm saying for you, my listeners, do not involve yourself in business with anyone that has not done research on you and you haven't done research on them. You need to know who you're dealing with. You need to know how and what is expected from you.
00:18:48
Speaker
Because if you don't know these people, you're not going to know them intimately and it's hard to see everything right off the top. People will pose themselves. We all have been involved in situations where people will
00:19:03
Speaker
act a certain way here and then years later you find out who they really are or whatever. You know, but at least you can do your research and be able to look at science, be able to catch science. That's the point of doing research to know what you're dealing with and how you're dealing with it. So please, I urge you research, research, research. The fourth thing I learned was seek wisdom.
00:19:26
Speaker
They wanted me to immediately make a quick decision. We had this hour-long conversation. I threw at you tons of stuff that our brand is going to do for your company. Now make the decision. Say yes. Give us your money. Agree to a single product. We're going to take this chunk of money out. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Give us a yes.
00:19:51
Speaker
I was like, when I told her, I said, I need time to talk with my business coach and business advisors. She was very adamant about me making a quick rush decision. If someone does not allow you time to allow what was said in that conversation or in that meeting,
00:20:14
Speaker
If people don't allow you time to seek out to advisors, they want you to make a quick decision for a reason. And you might want to be leery of that. You might want to be extremely cautious when it comes down to people that want you to make a really, that want you to make a really quick decision without thought.
00:20:34
Speaker
Businesses and business deals don't happen overnight. None of them have. No business deal that I've ever closed one and worked with has happened overnight. I can show you, if I was to show you my personal email, my business email, I will show you a conversation that I had with one young lady who I partnered with to make products for. I think our email chain is about 200 emails strong.
00:21:01
Speaker
No, no business deal. And it happened over, uh, I want to say like six months, no business deal happens immediately and it's best to take your time and to seek wisdom. I never force any client of mine to make a decision. I give them information. I tell them, let me know what you think. Get back to me as soon as you can. It's no rush. This is your money. This is your brand. This is your dream. This is your vision. You're trusting me with something that is near and dear to you.
00:21:31
Speaker
So I would never want you to make a rash decision. One young lady that I'm working with.
00:21:36
Speaker
I gave her an option and it was an expensive option. And she said to me, let me get back to you. I need to talk this over with my family. Absolutely. There was no rush. I didn't send back a response email where you need to hurry up and make a decision because I'm tired of going back and forth with you. I never did that. And I never will because this is business. It takes time and people need to process so that they know exactly what they're getting themselves into before they get into it.
00:22:05
Speaker
So my tidbit for you of wisdom is to seek wisdom. Ask questions, not just to the person that you're trying to do business with, but ask questions with your friends. You know, throw the information out there to people that you trust and seek their wisdom. Help them to see, ask them to show you where your blind spots are.
00:22:25
Speaker
What could potentially go wrong? What could potentially go right with this? Ask the questions because the more information you gather, you can make a better decision. And you can even begin to negotiate when you allow yourself to seek the wisdom and process the wisdom as well. Don't ever let anybody rush you into anything.
00:22:48
Speaker
take your time and if you missed that opportunity fine it wasn't for you anyway. Now there are times where you have to make a speed up decision but that's not all the time and more than likely you are probably prepared for it. So if I say allow yourself time and seek the wisdom and finally the last thing that I want to leave you with is to learn to trust yourself.
00:23:16
Speaker
One thing that I knew with listening to the conversation as I was listening to the young lady explain the reason why they went into business. I listened to her talk about a whole bunch of just a variety of things. I felt in my gut that this was not going to be a good business deal.
00:23:34
Speaker
I listened to the price range, I listened to the percentage that they wanted. It wasn't just about the money, but it was about how it just didn't make sense. It didn't convert over to me in my mind. I didn't see it being a good business deal, so I felt in my gut, even before I talked to anybody, that this was not right.
00:23:57
Speaker
And so when I started to talk to people around me and I began to give them roll out the information that I had, they all felt the same way. So you have to begin, you have to honestly trust yourself to know what is good and what is bad. And to be honest, like a lot of times because we get so excited about deals and
00:24:16
Speaker
You know, it's like a dream come true for a lot of us is we get blindsided by it. We don't look at the signs the warning signs like you have to examine people fruit to make sure that they're bearing the fruit that they say they are.
00:24:31
Speaker
And don't just gloss over the things that does not seem quite right, but focus on the things that are right. You need to focus on everything because this is your brand. This is your time. This is your career or whatever it is that you're up against.
00:24:47
Speaker
So trust yourself. Know when you're making a bad decision and don't be afraid to say, I feel like this is a bad decision. I don't think this is going to work out. It's okay that even if you get into something and you still make a bad decision, it's okay to say, man, I messed up. I need to backtrack. I may need to start over and try this again.
00:25:08
Speaker
So trust yourself, trust yourself to know that you know your business, you know yourself better than anybody. And just because you may need a little bit of help.
00:25:19
Speaker
does not mean that you're not a good leader, you're not a good parent, you're not a good whatever. Trust yourself. Know what you need, go after what you need, and build big. So that's my rules of engagement, guys.
Recap of Business Engagement Rules
00:25:34
Speaker
Trust yourself, seek wisdom, take your time, do research, get things in writing, and make sure that people respect your time. Make sure that they respect your energy. Make sure they respect what you have to bring to the table.
00:25:49
Speaker
Furthermore, you can always see people. When the young lady made the comment at the end, we're going to continue to add great brands anyway. To me, that left a bad taste in my mouth about this brand.
00:26:05
Speaker
I'm like, so if I was to deal business with you, this is how you guys would eventually treat me because I told you this wouldn't be a good idea for me. So this allows me to know that, and that allowed me to learn and understand that everybody don't have your best interests at heart. When it benefits them, they're down for the cause. But when you say, no, this doesn't work for me, then they kind of pull back and then they try to insult you in the end.
00:26:33
Speaker
So make sure you know who you're dealing with when you're dealing with people and when you're dealing business. Now everybody is not like that. Don't know. I want to emphasize that point. Everyone is not like that. You have some people that's honest that will do really good business with you and respect you when you say no.
00:26:50
Speaker
If people can't respect your no, then they don't respect you. So that's my podcast, guys.
Conclusion and Call to Connect
00:26:57
Speaker
If you have any questions, you know you can always email me at alienanitashow at gmail.com. I am alienanita on all of the things. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Find me, tweet me, ask me questions, whatever you want to know. I'm here.
00:27:13
Speaker
I should be back next week with a brand new podcast. I have something else that I want to talk to you guys about and I was trying to make sure that I didn't dabble over into those notes with this podcast, but hopefully you enjoyed this podcast and if you did share it with your friends and followers and you can also rate me on iTunes. If you would do that, that would be so super amazing. I love you guys and as always, stay blessed and be relevant.
00:27:52
Speaker
you