• I think we've touched on this before, but it's been a while, and I think the last question was more on haters. Negative comments are going to happen, you're going to get pushed back from things. I think you need to kind of first bucket something into a, does this need a response or does it not? Something like, "Hey, your hair looks stupid." I don't think that just needs a response. People will say mean, cruel things all the time. It's the Internet. It can be an incredible and shitty place at the same time, and I think that if people are just trolling you and just saying, "Nice shirt asshole". I don't really feel like that's something you need to respond to.

    You can delete the post and block the person, and that's just like, hey, I don't need this in my life. Delete and block, move on. I think that by responding to that or turning your audience on to that person, it just creates this nasty thing. It is nice to push back at those people and be like, "Hey, I'm a person here, that hurts my feelings too," but they are posting that to get a response from you, to get a rise from you, this is what trolls do, so in that case I would probably just walk away. Delete and block, that's what I would do.

    If it is something that feels like it needs a response, let's say you are working with a brand and somebody says, "Hey, doesn't that brand test on animals? I'm disappointed that you're working with them."

    If you're working with a brand that you think might cause some questions or some backlash, it's always nice to talk to the brand about that. Ask them, "Hey, I've been known for being eco-conscious and eco-friendly in what I do, and frankly I'm concerned about working with you because of these things, and my audience will be thinking this and this and this." The brand will probably have a good response, they'd say, "Oh absolutely hear you, years ago we used to do things this way, we've since changed, we do things this way now, we're eco-friendly, we don't test on animals," whatever it is.

    So, if you feel you're concerned, you should be able to think, what would people say, is this going to create any kind of drama, or is anyone going to raise an eyebrow and say why are you working with that brand? Ask them for a response. I think if you can be upfront with it, and get ahead of it, it's better.

    It's like that scene from the last scene in 8 mile, when Eminem is doing his freestyle, and he just lists out every insult that the guy was use going to use against him, and turns that around, it's almost like doing that but for working with the brand and saying, "Hey, it might surprise some of you that I'm working with this brand, here's why I am, here's why I think they're doing something great," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's the best thing, so just to totally get ahead of any confusion that it can create, but if somebody brings up a valid point it is worth acknowledging that criticism, and if you have a response that is honest, and explains what is happening, or why you did this, or whatever it might be, I think it could be worth throwing that out there.

    If it's on a sponsored post, again, you want to be careful because you don't want the comments to start becoming an argument about this brand, that's not going to look good. Sometimes you can take it off the comments section and DM the person.

    Again, I would always prefer-- sometimes you wish your audience like if they were upset with something, just sent you a DM and be like, "Hey, what's going on there?" So you guys could have a private conversation about it, but what you don't want to happen is for those comments to turn into a back-and-forth about the validity of you working with a brand on the sponsored post, because there's no way you come out looking good from that.

    So it's tough, and it's case by case basis. I just finished rereading that classic cattle Win friends and influence people, from like the 1930s or 40s, and there's a chapter in there that essentially says, you can't win arguments, because it is impossible to win an argument, either you don't win the argument, or you do win the argument and you look like an asshole, those are the options.

    So, I see it often times when somebody leaves a negative response and influencers comment, and then that influencer gets really, really nasty, and again, the commenter started it by saying something nasty to the influencer, but you were the one with the platform and I think you need to act in accordance with that platform, and you need to rise above those things and not bring yourself down and get marred in like this stupid argument in your comment section.

    So I am always a little disappointed when I see an influencer responding back to a negative comment, and then essentially siccing their audience on this person as well, because it just turns into this gross mob thing.

    If you don't like it delete it, block them, move on with your life, because if I learned anything from that book, I thought that was really interesting the idea that you can't win, so even if you make that person look like an idiot, what do you do? Now, you have used your platform to make someone look stupid. Congratulations, do you feel better? It's like if somebody bumped into you in the street, and you like on purpose and you broke their nose, do you look better for that, or you look like an asshole? You look like an asshole, just let it go. That would be my suggestion. Put the ego aside, move on. It's, let's say you get a thousand comments a week and one of them is negative. Who the fuck cares?

    If you don't have thick enough skin to deal with one negative comment in every thousand, then you're in the wrong business. Just move on. Because by responding, you give them a platform. Now they have taken over your post. Now the post is not about the post, the post is about them. Why would you do that? It doesn't make sense. You wouldn't give your post away for free to a brand necessarily. Why are you giving it away to this troll who said you look ugly? It's just not even worth it.
    Episode #109
    - Negative Comments, Brand Alignment, Backing out of Contracts