Learning to say NO - to Business Requests & Favors

Hey everyone, this is self made Millennial. I'm Madeline Mann, and today I'm going to teach you how to say no when people ask you for a favor. This is such an important thing to do to make sure that you are protecting your time. And I will give you the three step framework that you can use to make sure that you're saying no, but also not burning any bridges. I realized that, you know, this video sounds kind of bad, you know, not doing people's favors. And here, here I am with a lot of videos that say you should have this value add mentality. Always give, give, give before you take anything. And that is still true. But I think many of us have this issue that we say yes to too many things. And what we have to realize is that for everything we say yes to, we say no to something else. Our time is finite. And so when people approach us, can you do this? Can you do that? We realize that when we look back on our week, that our to do list was all made by other people and that we are not finding time to do the things that are most important to us. So let's start balancing your life out. Let's start saying no to more things and yes to the things that really matter to you. First thing you've got to do is build a Not to do list. What are you going to say no to? And just like a real actual to do list, you're going to want to revisit this pretty frequently. At least once every three months. When you have your priorities straight about what you're saying yes to and what saying no to. Suddenly this act of saying no, I cannot do that becomes a lot easier. It doesn't use as much brain power. And so here's an example of a not to do list. So your not to do list could look something like this. Let's say you're always hit up to do. Like it help requests. Like, you once fixed the conference line and now people come to you for all that stuff. But it's getting really distracting. Speaking from personal experience, then maybe that goes in your not to do list or calls a potential vendors. Maybe you've reviewed different vend in the past, but this quarter you don't have the budget, you don't have the time. And so if anyone hits you up with this cool new technology, say no, not now. It's on my not to do list. And then third, let's say people hit you up for coffee meetings, but you realize you haven't been spending very much time networking within your industry. To build partnerships, to build relationships that could potentially lead to employment opportunities. And so to make sure you don't spread yourself thin, you're gonna focus only your coffee meetings on people in your industry. So anyone outside your industry not to do. Isn't this feeling good? You're writing down things that you're just definitely not going to do. It feels freeing. And so now that you have your list, it's time to say no a lot. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here is the yes, no, yes formula for denying someone.

Positive no by William Urie. I will link it in the description for you to read because it is good stuff. Okay, so let's say someone asks you to get coffee to get advice on how to train their dog. And let's say this is outside of your industry, so it goes on your not to do list. Step one is the yes. Make sure they feel validated for asking. So say something like, that's great to hear that you rescued a dog and are so focused on training them right away. I mean, that's what we did with our dog and it was the best decision we made. Step two is the no. Clearly tell them that you cannot do it because you have other commitments. Be firm and unambiguous that you will not do this favor, such as I won't be able to meet up with you to discuss training techniques because I have some commitments I'm focused on right now that I can't take my attention away from. So unfortunately, I have to decline coffee meetings like this. Step three is the final yes. Help them in a way that they did not expect. So you could say, here's a link to my favorite dog training YouTube channel. It helped me so much through the process and I wish you all the best. That's how you do it. It will feel funky at first, but this way of saying no is encouraging, honest, and still a bit helpful. This is really just one approach to saying no. And it doesn't work for every case, which is why you need to watch the video. Five ways to say no. Like a Pro. And that video will bring you up to expert level on being a no machine. Hit a like on this video and subscribe. Thanks so much everyone. Why high five?