It was one of those slapstick moments we all find ourselves in. My cell phone was ringing, and I could hear it, but I couldn’t find it. It rang, and I thought, that’s my cell phone. It rang again, and I thought, uh oh, it’s not in my pocket. Sounds like the other side of the house. The kitchen, maybe. It rang a third time. Yes! It’s here in the kitchen somewhere, over there, by the microwave. It rang a fourth time and went to voice mail, with me running toward it like Yosemite Sam trying to defuse a keg of ACME dynamite before it explodes. The whole agonizing twenty seconds needed a Looney Tunes soundtrack.
This was a day after I had spent nearly three hours walking from business to business in the little town center near my house, introducing myself, talking about marketing and handing out business cards. My first tangible step in trying to drum up new business as a marketing consultant.
Sixteen years ago, I spent a year and a half selling life insurance. I was awful at it. And working out of an office filled with successful agents, I was reminded daily exactly how inept I was at selling life insurance. I was the Citigroup, AIG and General Motors of life insurance agents all rolled into one!
And there I went last Thursday, sixteen years older and wiser, more confident, less self-conscious, throwing myself right back into the arena of my most humbling defeat: selling. And, man, it was a blast! Sure, there were a few people who were irritated and standoffish, but I met some really interesting, friendly business owners over those three hours and handed out a lot of business cards. Collected quite a few, too.
Then, Friday morning, I dutifully sent follow-up emails to everyone I had met, thanking those I had spoken to for their time. Letting others know I had dropped by and to contact me if they needed anything. I went into this exercise wanting to be totally in the moment while I was making my rounds, and not judging the experience as good or bad based on the responses I got. I wanted to step outside myself and observe “me” to see how “I” would respond. I was fascinated by it. And with that fascination and what I learned about myself, I had fulfilled my expectations.
So now that my cartoon cell phone moment was over, I checked the voice mail. It was a real estate agent who was out when I dropped by, asking me to come back to his office to discuss some projects he wanted me to bid on. This is something I’ve thought about doing for quite a while, and I’m glad to now have the time to do it!
