| I didn’t know I’ll ever come back to write about this but there are little protocols and patterns that are probably causing you to lose opportunities, that if you were aware of, you could break that chain and make the shift… In 2018, the months of the Cameroon presidential elections, I remember waking up one morning to the ‘hype’ that I wanted to work with at least one of the presidential candidatesThat month the elections body ELECAM had just published the final list of the 9-man army named as presidential candidates. I don’t know where all the spirit came from but I started searching for their emails. From my student room, my tiny fingers were soaking wet as I typed, writing and deleting paragraphs upon paragraphs–specific emails meant for 5 of these 9 candidates whose contact details I got. To each of them, I was asking for two things: First, to have a private interview–and second, to volunteer my expertise to work on their presidential campaignsI was writing from my old, rusted and ‘corrugated’ Dell laptop which I inherited from my elder brother. Sitting in my student room in Buea, my tiny legs were crossed on a wooden chair as I anxiously typed letters which I didn’t know where they’d end. Maybe they were going to end with the gateman? I wouldn’t You know what happened? Of the 5 presidential candidates I wrote to, four replied back (two nicely turning down my request) but one of them picked up his phone to ring the number I put in my email, I’ve never shared this story with anyone before, but we set up a meeting and those months became one of those defining moments in the myths I built in my head about approaching peopleIn later years, I started trying to reinvigorate that energy and reaching out to countless mentors, people I admire and the responses have been surprisingly different(I’m gonna have to sit and break down the depth of each of these emails…) But away from my story , today’s email may be a very basic but really important detail which common sense did not teach you and me about getting even a ‘president’ to reply you . As I return from my social media break to hundreds of messages online, the chats reminded me about how we must have ignored the little ethics of approaching people we want to connect with and triggering a reply backYou see my friend, every single time I have the opportunity to write to my mentors, role models or someone I would like to do a project with, I consider it like a small pitch. I don’t hold back my intent like I’m waiting for a reply to the first “Hi or Hello’ .Each of these guys, at whatever level they are, get the craziest of messages. Put yourself in their shoes, if you have just an hour to attend to messages in your inbox and phone calls, would you attend to a “Good morning” that would likely be followed by “How was your night?” and “I hope you are fine, sir? or will you attend to the person that writes their message in full and gets straight to the point? So today is a triggering thought for you. The easiest way to get even the busiest person to reply to your message is to write everything in full. These guys would reply as long as you don’t try to waste their time. Stop trying to chat up anyone you don’t know personally and consciously use your inbox as a small pitch platform. Honest truth? Maybe you won’t get a reply back or you’ll get a NO but that’s part of the game. At least shoot your shot like the great girl you’re trying to get. Have a good week ahead and on my birthday (April 10), I’m expecting ‘one man’ for all these emails I’m sending you😀 (I hope say you nogo book me🙄) Arrey BateInternet Entrepreneur / Author / Journalist PS: Join the Facebook group Smart Afrikpreneurs Here and link up on social media (And thank you to those who checked up on me during the social media break, really appreciate) |
