Walking Into The Unknown
It’s
like a voyage of discovery into unknown lands, seeking not for new
territory but for new knowledge. It should appeal to those with a
good sense of adventure — Frederick
Sanger.
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My
approach is to go one street at a time. Keep in mind I didn’t know
anyone — -business owners, that is — -personally. So I go
out and take my chances. But it’s not just me and the chances. It’s
me and some goodies in my pocket — the desire to learn, a clear
idea of what I’m out to do, the purpose of my project, going about
things in a professional manner, goodwill, a desire to write all
about it and share the stories I collect, and a clear idea of how to
present my project and set up interview appointments. And all of it
for free. And lest I forget, joy and a smile. These are trump cards
on their own, it’s only up to me to use them well.
Okay,
so when I’m out, already knowing about the locality pretty well, I
pick one street and go from shop to shop presenting my project to
owners.
I
was turned down by some, and also run into shops where the owner was
absent, but for the most part it went well. For stopping by about 10
shops in one stretch, I will come away with one interview. And if you
factor in absent owners and having no prior relationships to tap
into, I’d take one interview any day.
Also,
besides the tools in my pocket, I also have at heart that in the end
these business owners and I are the same at heart. We all want to be
loved, to belong, to be acknowledged, and to be part of something
good. In this case, I have created this good thing that I know they (
if they get to know my reasons) will definitely want to be a part of.
As of writing this book, some of them were the very ones who gave me
testimonials to share on my book page, after getting to know me
through the project, and a good amount of them are now my Facebook
friends.
Also
when I’m out prospecting like this, I’m only out there for about
2–3 hours, sometimes 1, at a time. Sometimes I visit only 5 shops
in a day. You can see how I spent my day in the behind the scenes
posts that I wrote about towards the end of the book, in the later
chapters. There, I share everything I wrote about on a daily basis
while the project was going on.
In
the same way, I’m sure you know your local community very well, so
pick a few streets that you will be visiting business owners on
during your project. Yet if you already know a few business owners,
do your first interviews with them and use that as evidence when you
are ready to go out and talk to owners you don’t know.
But
after picking a street, simply walk in, like I share above, and
present your project. With your presentation in mind, and believe me
you’ll come away with interviews.
Again,
know you have these in your pocket.
- Sincerity
- Goodwill
- Desire to learn
- Desire to write about it
- Willingness to share their story with others
- It’s all free and costs them nothing save a few minutes of their time
- A smile.
Do
this for 7 days, 2 hours a day, and you’ll come away with 3–4
interviews, at least.
This
is for folks who will like to do my kind of project ( with business
owners). But for those looking to interview another kind of
professionals, a similar approach will work. For, let’s say
churches, if you want to interview pastors, it will be visiting a
select number of churches in your local community and requesting to
meet the pastors. The same list above applies in approaching them,
too.
For
folks focusing exclusively on interviewing chefs, it will be visiting
only restaurants and requesting to talk to their chefs. For teachers,
it will be local schools, for stockbrokers, it will be visiting
investment firms in your neighborhood, however few there are there,
and so on. You get the idea. But the goodies I list above work in
almost any situation.
What
will I get from all this?
Okay,
what will you get from 'walking into the unknown'? The opportunity to
step outside your comfort zone is something you should always
consider carefully without turning it down immediately, for out of
those come some of the best of all a person's personal growth.
Why?
The opportunity to step into an unfamiliar zone, where you know no
one, or a few people, to share an idea, or to complete a project will
draw on the best inside you.
In
this case, you’ll be dealing with people you don’t know, but you
get out there and engage with them. This is like standing in front of
a small section of the world and doing a presentation on why you
should be heard. This is not a grand public presentation, but an
opportunity to start there, and start working on your presentation
skills, and people skills.
The
whole world revolves around people, and people are the essence of the
world. Some may say animals matter, too. Yeah, they do, but only in
the sense that we human beings value them, or their existence helps
us. So in the end, an ability to deal with people is one of the
greatest skills to have an opportunity to learn.
You
have lived in your local community your whole life and may privately
hold a desire to travel overseas as a chance to grow and expand your
understanding of the world and of yourself. A great desire, I would
say, but the reason most people who travel overseas and come back
with a new-found self-understanding is the unfamiliarity that being
abroad or living in an unfamiliar environment forces you to wrestle
with.
It’s
like taking the baby bike-supports off your child’s bike and asking
him to ride on his own. In that moment, he has nothing to hold on to,
but to draw on something inside him, to trust that he can do this.
And the capacity that is already inside him but lies untapped will
come forth. That’s what foreign lands do to you. They bring out the
fears first, and then the treasures deep within.
Well,
foreign lands are not always physical. They are mental too. If
someone says “I have never done this before,” they only mean
that whatever they are talking about is foreign to them, their mind
has never experienced something like that. We see this with public
speaking. People who are new to it have to deal with stage fright
because to their minds this is foreign territory.
So
is a local interview project. It forces you to interact with your
local community in a new, ‘foreign’ way, and that will test you.
But in a good way. It will draw things out of you that you never knew
you had. You’ll see your local community in a new light, and when
you are done, you’ll have expanded your being, and your
relationships, too.
So
if the money to travel nor the opportunity do so through a group does
not present itself, create your own “foreign” at home, create
your own “unknown” right where you are with a local project, and
go out and execute.
If you enjoyed the read, you'll love the whole book: Get To Know Your Backyard Opportunity
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