Write on!!!!!
Looking for a way to create relationships? Looking for a way to deepen your relationships? Then write a note. Writing is fast becoming a lost art. The days of the handwritten note are so far gone that the recipient of a handwritten note almost calls 911 asking for someone to bring an oxygen tank to the reader.
I remember when I went to a turning point retreat with Brian Buffini. I heard two stories that blew me away. The first revolved around George Bush, senior. He said that he wrote notes daily as part of his daily discipline. At one point he met some woman who was setting tables for a wedding event. George had gotten there earlier and struck up a conversation with this woman. They talked until the event was ready to start. He asked a staffer for her name and address and wrote her a personal note. Several years later, when George was running for his presidency, that same lady had married the Governor of some eastern state, Massachusetts, I believe. She ended up influencing the then governor to support Bush in his election bid. He did and Bush eventually won. George said that the single most powerful weapon he had in his political career was note writing.
The second great story was that of Brian Buffini himself. He was having some mastery event of some sort. He wanted to have Neil Armstrong as a guest speaker. He called him, but Armstrong wouldn't return his calls. So he wrote him a note. Again, Brian didn't get a response. As Brian tells the story he wrote him once a month for many months until Brian received a note back. Brian then received a note from Armstrong saying quit writing me. Brian refused and just dropped him a note one time a month thereafter. Finally, Armstrong wrote a note saying, in essence, "are you going to keep writing me until I meet with you?" Brian responded with another note that said, "YES."
Needless to say, Armstrong had been sought after for speaking engagements for years. NASA had asked him to come out of retirement so that he could be the spokesperson of NASA. He refused. Brian had broken Armstrong through sincerity, through notes and through persistence. As Brian said, "Armstrong just hadn't been heard from in so long that I thought that he had wisdom and insight to share with the world." Buffini got from Armstrong what no other was able to do. He did it through note writing.
A couple of years ago I received a book from a cohort entitled "The lost art of the hand written note." I think that done with persistence and with sincerity, it'll open doors for you in ways that you couldn't have fathomed. I will say that my two greatest referral partners became that, in part, to the writing of notes that I used to do.
It's been a while and I lost a lot of my momentum, but now is a time to revive it for me. I see great things in the sincere pursuit of a relationship through a consistent, non-pestering, persistence.
WRITE ON!!!!!!
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