A past colleague of mine would always remind me to follow-up with reporters about a story, even after I had called four times and sent 5 emails. I didn’t want to bug the reporter any longer. I had every excuse to quit, to move on, to acknowledge the reporter wasn’t interest.
Yet, I tried reaching out again.
That time the reporter responded and said he wished he had my persistence and that he would try the product with no guarantee of writing about it. The latter didn’t matter, it’s a great enough product that I knew he would publish a piece on it (and will in July of this year). What has stayed with me is his initial comment about persistence.
He wasn’t supporting the way I stayed persistent, because I kept changing my pitch, my emails my messages. I followed him closely enough to know what was going on at that time and angled my communications differently each time until I resonated with him.
What my colleague and this experience taught me was persistence isn’t doing the same thing again and again. No. It’s maintaining the same goal. My friend didn’t say, “Send the email again.” She said, “Remember our goal.”
The reporter didn’t say, “Your words convinced me.” He said, “You care enough to keep trying.”
Yes, how you deliver matters, but more importantly is you do what you promise again and again.
Stay Positive & Remember Your Goal
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