So You Bombed. Move On.

By Bob Phibbs, CSP, MDSG, the Retail Doctor

My client’s voice was blunt. “Just got the surveys back. They hated you.”

Not some of them. Not a mixed response. They hated me. Everything from my content to the way I asked someone to turn off the lights.

This was three weeks after what I thought was a solid keynote for Yamaha. I’d spoken for them several times before. Those went well. But this time, one week out, the CEO changed my theme. Sales were down, and he wanted me to tell the reps it was their fault.

I pushed back. That’s not my message. He insisted. We had a signed contract, do what I ask. I adjusted my talk, got through the first hour, and took a break. Everyone seemed fine. The CEO was happy. I finished strong.

Three weeks later: the surveys.

I was spinning. I called Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award Recipient, who’d mentored me for 20 years.

“So you bombed,” she said. “Move on. Why are you calling me? You should be calling your client.”

Then she hung up. Gotta love Fripp!

When the Trap Was Set Before You Arrived

Sometimes you walk into a situation that was rigged against you from the start.

Major association event. Two weeks before, I had a call with the event planner. I asked the question I always ask: “Anything I should be aware of about your audience?”

“No,” he said. “Just like any other group.”

I was giving the same speech I’d delivered for years. Easy examples. Nothing polarizing. The noise about COVID was getting louder every day. A shutdown seemed certain. The client who hired me had already forbidden their crew from Seattle to attend because they thought it was too risky.

Right before I went on, I checked with the event promoter about the interactive exercises. We were using balloons and paper. “Is this risky? I can stop it.”

“We live for risk,” she said.

Midway through, I used an example. A young man walks into a store with two small children, a little boy and a little girl. I asked the audience, “What could you say?”

Someone suggested asking if they both play sports. Someone else asked, “Do you coach?”

A woman shouted, “Hey, what about the girl?”

She wasn’t answering my question. She was objecting to it. I kept going. Thirty people told me afterward how great it was. Three young women from that table told me they were offended.

In the elevator after, I saw a woman who’d just received a diversity award. I congratulated her.

“I can help you get rid of your offensive slides,” she said.

I stopped. “What?”

“Oh yes. You did big damage out there.” Everything was wrong. The slide showing a confused woman’s face. The mention of a Big Gulp Coke on the counter during a mystery shop. How hurtful that was to mention.

I pushed back. She said she’d find another way to get through to me.

She went to the board. She got the organization to apologize to the membership the next day.

I flew home. I’d told the client right after the speech that it went well, though a few didn’t like it. Then, while I was driving home, doing 90 mph on the 87 with everyone else speeding home before everything shut down, I received a client email, “We could never use you again because of the feedback.”

Then the president announced the COVID lockdown.

Here’s the part that still gets me: one of the board members wrote to me afterward. “This isn’t the first time this has happened to speakers at our group.”

They knew. The event planner knew. Nobody told me.

What Happened After

For safety, I removed a couple of examples from my signature talk. It took a while coming out of COVID to feel comfortable with that talk again.

The Yamaha situation was different. I’d bent to what the CEO wanted. I delivered his message instead of mine. He was happy in the moment. The surveys told a different story.

Patricia was right. I bombed. But here’s what mattered: I had to move on without losing my voice.

These were two odd circumstances. I haven’t encountered anything like them before or since. But they taught me something.

What Actually Matters

Some audiences won’t like you no matter what you do. That’s not failure. That’s math.

The skill isn’t avoiding the bombs. The skill is recovery without losing your nerve.

When you get heckled mid-speech, you keep going. When the surveys come back brutal, you call your client and figure out what happened. When someone tells you that you did damage, you listen, but you don’t let three voices drown out 30.

When the CEO wants you to deliver a message that isn’t yours, you decide: is this an adjustment or a compromise? There’s a difference.

The heckling had continued from that one table trying to draw me to a debate. I had buried my mom the day prior in Los Angeles. I showed up. I delivered. And still, it wasn’t enough for everyone.

That’s the work. You show up. You do what you said you’d do. And then you move on.

What Actually Builds a Business

I became “The Retail Doctor” in 1994 by picking retail and becoming a fierce advocate for brick-and-mortar stores. Stores go out of business because owners don’t train and hold their employees accountable. I built my business on the belief that we can change the world by the people working and shopping in retail. That worldview became my magnet for business. The big brands come to me when they are trying to get more sales in their brick-and-mortar stores.

I began back in 1997, sharing stories from growing a chain from six stores to 55. I try most any new technology before it is polished. I post videos on LinkedIn that aren’t perfect. I kept showing up with something specific to say in my own blunt style.

When I ask people what they speak on, sometimes it is so general that it is grey. People hire for your color – your standout worldview.

If you follow my work on LinkedIn, there’s no question what I believe or share.

My Quick Advice

To grow your business: pick a lane. Be specific. Be intentional. Realize no one is perfect.

The bookings that fell through, the speeches that bombed, the surveys that stung, the clients who didn’t warn me about landmines, the email that came while driving home during a pandemic lockdown – none of that built my business.

But how I responded did.

Patricia hung up on me because she knew I was wasting time spinning instead of fixing. The client didn’t hate me. The audience had a bad experience. Those are different problems with different solutions.

After COVID, I had to get comfortable with my signature talk again. I had to decide: was I going to stay fearful, or was I going to get back to connecting with audiences?

I picked the latter. Some people still won’t like it. That’s fine.

You can’t build a speaking business by trying to make everyone happy. You build it by being clear about what you stand for, learning from the bombs, and not letting the hard moments take your voice.

So you bombed. Move on.

But move on as yourself, not as a safer version who’s trying not to offend anyone. That version doesn’t get booked.

Want to learn more from Bob Phibbs, CSP? Tune in to his recent Fly on the Wall episode now in the Digital Vault.

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