In 2015, when I badly needed more clients, I attended book launches, weddings, horrific self-aggrandising 50th birthdays and all kinds of bullshit events in the hope that one person would ask me what I did and fingers crossed come and sign up.
It took me two events to realise two things:
1. I hate social gatherings. I hate it with all my heart and whatever soul I have . I hate dressing up. I hate pretending that I like being there. And I especially hate seeing family and friends who I don’t care enough about to speak to regularly. And most of these events are just nauseating. The food mostly sucks too. Why would you bother celebrating or pretending to remarry a guy simply because he made it to his 60th bday? It was an accomplishment in an impoverished, agrarian society that most of the subcontinent was for thousands of years. Made sense to celebrate the rare chap who made it to 60. But now almost every single guy makes it there. Does it even make sense to celebrate turning 60 anymore? Let alone get remarried when you turn 60. This is just the tip of the dumb iceberg of events we come up with.
2. No one is in a mood to sign up for a gym at these things. They want to eat a bunch of carbohydrates and fat and gossip. A gym coaching service is as easy to sell in a Hindu wedding as it would be to sell ice to an Eskimo.
Two events is all it took for me to realise I was better off sleeping in and just doing my damn job with the 30 people who were showing up.
And other than the candid stream of consciousness ranting on LinkedIn and coaching when I coach, that’s all I still do for marketing and networking.
It took me two events to realise two things:
1. I hate social gatherings. I hate it with all my heart and whatever soul I have . I hate dressing up. I hate pretending that I like being there. And I especially hate seeing family and friends who I don’t care enough about to speak to regularly. And most of these events are just nauseating. The food mostly sucks too. Why would you bother celebrating or pretending to remarry a guy simply because he made it to his 60th bday? It was an accomplishment in an impoverished, agrarian society that most of the subcontinent was for thousands of years. Made sense to celebrate the rare chap who made it to 60. But now almost every single guy makes it there. Does it even make sense to celebrate turning 60 anymore? Let alone get remarried when you turn 60. This is just the tip of the dumb iceberg of events we come up with.
2. No one is in a mood to sign up for a gym at these things. They want to eat a bunch of carbohydrates and fat and gossip. A gym coaching service is as easy to sell in a Hindu wedding as it would be to sell ice to an Eskimo.
Two events is all it took for me to realise I was better off sleeping in and just doing my damn job with the 30 people who were showing up.
And other than the candid stream of consciousness ranting on LinkedIn and coaching when I coach, that’s all I still do for marketing and networking.