Happy New Year! Are you so glad to be done with 2012? I am! I have never had a worse year than 2012. So, since it’s a new year, I want to remind you of what we should be talking about with our clients.

We sit with our clients and we have a lot we can talk about. We need to build a relationship with our clients to gain their trust. We also need to get to know them and engage in some small talk. What should we talk about with the rest of the time? Here are some examples of something good, something bad, and something ugly.

The Good: This year I already shared with you that I lost a lot of weight going to boot camp, running, and attending Jazzercise. I was a cheerleader back in high school and sometimes some of the dance moves at Jazzercise cause my inner cheerleader to come out. You got it, I’m that girl in the front row! The Jazzercise studio owner asked me if I ever thought about becoming an instructor. I actually have. So I started the training and went though a lot to get certified. I was dancing three hours a day to learn the 10 songs required for auditions. At auditions — yes I had to audition to become certified. I had to know all 10 songs, but at auditions I would randomly pick two from the mix. I would have no idea which songs I was getting until that moment. I also had to take the American Fitness & Aerobic Association exam and get CPR certified. There was a lot that went into this. I was practicing, leaning how to cue the next move, counting with the music, doing opposite moves with my right and left…it was overwhelming. After all that, I made it and became a Jazzercise Certified Instructor.

This is something that was good that was going on in my life. However, not every client wanted to hear how exhausted I was from practice, working hard, and studying. Five of us auditioned that day and only three of us made it, but all of my clients don’t care to know about the entire process.

The Bad: My brother Steve passed away unexpectedly just before Christmas this year.  My family was devastated and I had a hard time focusing at work. I found myself daydreaming and thinking about how his kids will continue without their dad. But my clients really don’t want to hear about the funeral arrangements and the sadness I feel.

The Ugly: My husband and I decided to end our marriage after eight years. So, since February, we have attended counseling and been trying to work on repairing our marriage. We came to an agreement and have decided that life is short and we are no longer happy together. We are adults and feel that we have exhausted all possibility of reconciliation. Now again, I could have shared all of the details with my clients and discussed how we are dividing our household. But do they really want to hear it?

I learned while working with Redken a few years ago not to clutter my work area with personal pictures. The reason they suggest not putting all of that on your station is because it can make your clients associate feelings with you. For example, you may have your wedding picture on your station and maybe the client sitting in your chair is going through a divorce. You may have pictures of your children and maybe the client lost a child, had a miscarriage, or is struggling to get pregnant. It can make the client uncomfortable sitting in your chair and think about her situation. She can associate you with that feeling. This is also why Target doesn’t play music in its stores. Songs can stir up emotions and make people feel bad; they don’t spend money. This is good advice and I don’t have anything personal on my station.

We can and should be talking about retail items, current promotions, additional services, pre-booking the next appointment, etc. Before commenting, know that I understand what you’re thinking. We can’t always talk about the business constantly and we do build friendships with our clients over the years. We all have a handful of special clients that we share more than our weekend plans with. I know that clients ask us about our lives too — they care about us too. I just want us to be aware that we don’t have to disclose all the details all the time. We don’t have to bring our personal life to work with us every day. I am sharing this with you because I want you to know that everyone goes through some good, bad, and ugly times in their life. I did last year and you, my readers never knew it. I just keep on with life and all of its ups and downs. I also broke my foot last year which debilitated me for awhile and I did manage to write about that. Breaking my foot was another bad, but I am healed. We all heal over time and we also have to count our blessings. Look around you, life is full of them!

Focusing on the business instead of our personal business — one more way to help you stand out above the rest and become the BEST! Wishing you all a successful, healthy, blessed, and abundant 2013!