When you put yourself out there, people will come for you.
Doesn’t matter if you’re publishing content, sending cold outreach, posting videos, or doing anything that isn’t safely tucked inside the box you’re supposed to stay in. The moment you stand out, someone will show up to knock you back down.
It’s called the tall poppy syndrome.
An Australian phrase. The idea is simple: when one poppy grows taller than the rest, the instinct is to cut it down. Not because it did anything wrong. Just because it had the audacity to grow.
The recruiting space has its share of tall poppy cutters. And I learned a long time ago that how you respond to them matters more than whether they show up.
The Troll Arrives
One morning I got a message from one of my HERCers letting me know that someone had been talking smack in another Facebook group. The comment looked like this:
Apparently we’d had the audacity to send this person a cold email marketing our services.
GASP.
Can you spot the irony?
Here’s the context: I’d been running a cold outreach sequence using humor and self-deprecation to start conversations with recruiters and search firm owners. Not a hard pitch. Not a template blast. An actual creative, funny sequence designed to spark a response.
And it was working. Responses were pouring in. The feedback was consistent: these are the most creative cold emails I’ve ever gotten from anyone in this space.
So naturally, a small percentage of people hated it.
For every 15 to 20 pounds of positive responses I’d get the occasional Negative Nelly. Or the stunning and brave act of screenshotting one of my emails in another group to mock it.
The Lesson Mike Ditka Already Knew
Here’s what the legendary Bears coach had to say about critics:
"Media's fickle. You're a hero today, you're a bum tomorrow. Took me a while to figure it out but once I did, I treated them all the same. Like dirt."
“You’re going to have your critics. Screw ‘em.”
~ Mike Ditka
Mike Ditka knows what’s up.
When the troll showed up in my world, I had no interest in jumping into the comment thread to defend myself. No interest in apologizing. No interest in changing my approach because someone with a keyboard and an opinion thought they deserved an audience.
What I did instead was write an email to my list about it.
When the Troll Becomes a Tool
The email I sent that morning generated two discovery calls.
One of the replies I got back looked like this:
And then there’s this gem I’d been saving for exactly the right moment:
Been waiting a long time for an excuse to use this Jean Luc Picard meme.
That’s fun and profit from a single troll encounter. The pearl-clutching scold who screenshotted my email to mock it ended up generating actual pipeline. I didn’t play defense. I turned it into content, talked about what was working, and let the results do the talking.
That’s the move.
Two Rules for Dealing With Trolls
When they come for you, and they will, here’s how to handle it:
Rule one: don’t jump in the fray directly. Do not debate them. Do not try to change their mind. Do not waste energy defending yourself to someone who has already decided to dislike you. It’s an exercise in futility and it makes you look small.
Rule two: look at the hard data. If what you’re doing is generating results, a troll is not evidence that you’re wrong. It’s evidence that you’re visible. Those are different things. Don’t let someone throw a stick in your spokes because they’re offended that you’re moving.
The next time a pearl-clutching scold is offended that you dared to email them, or a keyboard warrior gets self-righteous about your prospecting approach, just remember what Ditka said.
Then write an email about it.
Stay tuned for part two: Trolls = Fun + Profit.