People That Want To Meet You But Don't Hustle

Through my online and offline activities, a lot of people have begun to hear about me. Some of them find my blogs useful, maybe they think my tweets are funny, perhaps they were in the audience at an event I spoke at. I really appreciate hearing positive, and even negative, feedback from this audience. One interesting development is that now with me traveling more, with an audience spread all over the place, a lot of people say things like, "When are you going to visit Miami/Nashville/Minneapolis/Portland/Boston/etc.?"

Well, be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true. Something I've noticed is when I do actually visit one of these places (that I might only visit once every two years or something) is that some people hustle to meet me, and some people don't. I try REALLY hard to reach out to people on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, email, and phone to tell them when I'll be in town, where I'll be, and when I'm available and what I'm thinking. It's a hustle. I try to pack tons of engagements and activations into a trip (people who have seen me dashing around Manhattan know this well).

Back to the hustle; it goes both ways. It's illegit to feign wanting to meet me very badly, and then not hustle to make it happen when I'm in your city for two or three days. It gives me a bad impression of you, if I haven't met you previously. Everyone is busy, no doubt - but if you're the kind of person to take 15 minutes and meet me in the hotel lobby for a cup of coffee, you're making that BIG impression on me. And if you have this thing on Thursday and that other thing on Friday and you're busy on Saturday...yeah, that doesn't impress me. You can't say you badly want to meet me when I'm in town and then not make it happen.

I try to meet everyone who wants to meet me, within reason. But it goes both ways. Want to make a GREAT impression in real life? Hustle. You can only do so much from behind a keyboard.

Loading mentions Retweet

Comments (5)

Feb 06, 2010
subbob said...
Mark - I wanted to offer a perspective from someone that was on the OTHER side of your hustle cycle. My visit to DC last spring was a turning point in learning just how useful these connected tools can be in developing useful relationships. As you say, it does both ways, and your willingness to meet with me, a near stranger, for a couple hours at NDU also made a big impression.

On that same day, I spent the afternoon at the Pentagon with Alan Black (@AFPADue) - someone else I only knew through Twitter and email. That day marked the beginning of a process leading to a career change for me and, hopefully, my being in a position to help influence the U.S. Army and DoD use these tools more effectively.

Bob (@subbob)

Feb 06, 2010
Mark Drapeau said...
Thanks, Bob! I suspect I will know you for a long time, too.
Feb 06, 2010
Pascal said...
Mark. So very true. If your ever in Seattle... You'll see the hustle. But would also enjoy communicating with you and what I have been working on. Hope your enjoying the snow. We miss it over on the west coast.
Feb 06, 2010
Mark Drapeau said...
Pascal - Thanks! If you hustle you can find my Facebook or regular email address and send me a note! (And b/c of Microsoft I will be out there regularly.)
Feb 07, 2010
Justin Houk said...
I was totally blown away by this guy that saw me tweet that I was attending #BeerandBlog in Portland and made a special point of turning up just to meet me. He had a great idea about crisis communications that are a current interest of mine and just wanted to bounce it off me. What ensued was an epic conversation that was of value on so many levels.

Leave a comment...

 
Got an account with one of these? Login here, or just enter your comment below.
Posterous-login    Connect    twitter



 

About

Dr. Mark Drapeau is a biological scientist, government and private-sector consultant, and prolific writer on science, technology, innovation, government, and society. He recently joined Microsoft's U.S. Public Sector division as Director of Innovative Social Engagement. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and until recently he held the position of Associate Research Fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. Mark is currently a regular writer for Washington Life, Federal Computer Week, and numerous high-profile blogs. He is a co-founder of Government 2.0 Club and is the co-chair of the O'Reilly Media / TechWeb-produced Gov 2.0 Expo. Mark has a B.S. and Ph.D. in biology and has held postdoctoral fellowships from the NIH and AAAS. His research has considered many topics, from the origin of insect behavioral instincts to the honeybee genome to government operations during pandemic flu to the uses of biological metaphors in national security.