How do you handle those situations that totally embarrass you, but other people think is funny?

Maybe you said something in a sales meeting that was misunderstood that got a big laugh. Maybe you dropped a dessert in your lap at the company party and everyone laughed while you sat mortified.

Or you do something that humiliates you, but your prospects think it’s a riot. Maybe you walked in on a family in a home you thought was empty…the prospect’s get a big hoot out of a situation that has you stunned. How do you respond?

Are these people being insensitive? I don’t think so. I think that for the most part they are replaying a scenario that looks familiar.

How you respond could make or break your sale. Learn to smile and go along with those who are laughing at you. You will be glad you did, believe me.

This is a true, embarrassing story about a meeting I was invited to attend by the Chairman and Chief executive officer and members of senior management of what was the largest Savings and Loan in the southeast at that time.

I had been invited to this meeting to discuss my becoming the “workout” marketing consultant for 27 condominium communities around the state of Florida that the Association owned or was about to own through foreclosure.

This opportunity was a huge one for a 43-year-old Realtor trying to survive in a world with fixed rates for a mortgage at 20%. I was dressed to the nines and looking good.

I was prepared, confident, and ready to do business.

I was seated on one side of the conference table drinking a cup of coffee waiting on the chairman’s arrival through the door facing me. As he walked in, I stood, leaned across the table, shook his hand and sat down.

As the meeting opened, I happened to look down at my white shirt and noticed a huge coffee stain, which from my vantage point seem to spread from my shirt pocket to my belt and across my stomach.

I had dragged my tie through my coffee when I leaned across the table to shake the chairman’s hand. I was totally mortified.

Now, instead of listening to what he was saying, I was thinking to myself “How can I prove to this entire group that I am not a complete and total slob?”

My mind was racing, as I buttoned my coat. Here I am, in the most important business meeting I have ever been in my life, and I have a coffee-stained shirt and tie that will probably grow like a fungus as I sit here.

What would you have done?

Here what I did.

I grabbed my stomach, acting like I had a bad ache, hurriedly excused myself, ran across the street to a men’s store, purchased a new shirt and tie, put them on and ran back to the meeting. It didn’t take five minutes.

I apologized, but explained I was feeling better, trying hard not to breath too heavily. The meeting went well, but I was a wreck. A couple of the executives couldn’t stop laughing or trying not to..

At the end of the meeting, the Chairman asked if anyone had any questions. No one did, but he said he had one.

Turning to me he said, “Fletch, how did you do that?”

“Do what?” I asked.

“How did you get the coffee stain off of your shirt.?”

By this time the room was rolling with laughter, as I haltingly explained what I had done. It was the icebreaker of all icebreakers.

I wish I could report that this story ends here, but it doesn’t.

That night, they invited me to their company Christmas party. We were standing around the buffet table enjoying our food, when the executive vice president commented that he smelled something burning. We all agreed that we smelled something....

All of a sudden, the president said, “Hey, Fletch, your coat is on fire. It seems that I had my elbow in a candle flame. The coat wasn’t on fire, but it was seriously scorched.

I was mortified. They started laughing so hard tears were coming down their faces. I’m thinking, “There has got to be cave I can crawl into and never come out of around here somewhere.” The only thing I knew to do was smile sheepishly and go along with their fun.

The other option is to become upset and perhaps bruise others' feelings, which is the last thing I wanted to do.

The moral of the story is to learn to accept yourself as you are, if others are laughing at you, and give them a smile that suggests you know they are laughing at you, and that you think it is also amusing.

This attitude will go a long way toward making you good friends who respect you and will want to do business with you.

Published: August 11, 2004

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David Fletcher has been a Florida licensed real estate broker and new homes sales and marketing consultant for 30 years. Along the way, he has sold more than $3 billion in new homes and condominium products for developers and builder/developers. He has been broker of record for 16 rental conversions and marketing consultant in 29 lender workouts for major communities and condominium projects, a featured speaker at the National Association of Realtors, and chaired the Florida Home Builder Association's Sales and Marketing Council. In 2008 he was named a 'Lifetime Achiever' by Keller Williams Realty's International Division. You may contact him at or call him at 407.234.2349.