In-person meetings and phone calls
Part of the “remembering who the heck I am” from yesterday’s grateful log is the simple thing of a phone call or an in-person meeting.
Email is great. Texting is great. Convenient, easy to do. But not always the best way to communicate. And maybe, as those two methods have become notorious for junk, spam, and other nefarious activities, a phone call or in-person meeting just helps to cut through all of the noise. Similar to sending a letter in the mail (something I need to add to my short list).
Something happened over the past few years where I became overly reliant on impersonal communication, preferring an email or text over a phone call. Something has happened again, though, where I remember that I used to prefer phone calls, letters, and in-person meetings over anything electronic. Put me in a room with people and I will absolutely accomplish whatever it is I am there to accomplish, I will smile, shake hands, make people feel great about themselves, and so on and so forth. It is similar to writing for me, where I can write myself into or out of just about any situation, talking with people on the phone or face-to-face makes it possible to accomplish anything, good or bad!
I was recently talking with my dad about my leather business. He was curious about how it worked to be online only as far as how sales are made. He asked about the conversion rate. My conversion rate for online sales is anywhere between 2-5% depending on the time of year. This is expected. But, I made the point that if I had a shop where people could come in to a place, see what I make, hold it in their hands, talk with me or a friendly team member, that conversion rate would be much higher (and so too would my overhead - but probably worth it).
A phone call is great. Meeting in person is great. The human connection made through both absolutely cannot be replicated in any other way. Nothing electronic can replace our innate humanity and our desire for meaningful connections.
And so that’s that. I’m picking up the phone more often, scheduling more meetings, looking for ways upon ways to get in-front of actual human beings face-to-face. Time to bring back the business travel budget!
Carpe Diem!
~ Aaron
Grateful log for Thu, 21 Mar 2024
- In-person meetings
2. Phone calls
3. Hearing birds sing their song