Rejetion Coach

A little bot to help us fear rejection just a little less.

Fear of rejection is a constant batter for me. I remember when I had to submit reviews for my book and I absolutely dreaded people saying no. Worse, I dreaded when they said yes and returned a review. I procrastinated so hard on getting those reviews. My publisher had to be firm on the deadline. No doubt, i was not the first author to fear rejection.

I also remember the first time I saw the video, Rejection Therapy. Jia Jiang does a series of videos where he purposely puts himself in positions to get rejected in order to get over his fear of rejection. I love those videos and admire his willingness to be rejected do much.

Building on the coaching theme, I wondered how a bot might be able to coach people through fear of rejection. I’m wary of doing anything that resembles mental health - I don’t necessarily agree bots should be used for mental health. Instead I thought of this more like an interactive experience to help people pinpoint what their fear is and give tips to get over it. Users can even role play a rejection, though doesn’t always work well in the bot.

Also if people can pin point their fears in a safe space (a bot won’t judge!) then that’s going to at least move the needle. At least that’s my hypothesis.

Try it out here.

What I learned

I wanted to make this bot a little more empathetic. It’s not hard to give bots fake empathy. In the prompt I used this phrase: “The GPT will conduct these interactions with a supportive, empathetic, and patient tone, ensuring users feel heard and helped. “ I also wanted the to have the bot remind people to connect with humans, not just a bot, for actual support when facing rejections. It’s not enough to learn how to get rejected. We need people in our life to support us when we’re feeling discouraged or down, and the bot can remind them that.

I also learned that every bot needs human feedback. I wish I had testers to give feedback on whether or not this worked, and if it didn’t, what would work for a rejection coach.