One fine day, I wrote a book, Seven Conversations.
Another fine day, I posted a long rant on TRH forum.
This was read by fellow rodinhooder Imran Patel who helped me connect to the amazing author, Rashmi Bansal – who I am sure everyone knows here. We exchanged few emails and I met her when she was visiting my hometown. She was very down to earth and gave me lot of insights about another book I am working on. We talked about a lot of things which, if turns to anything interesting, I will share here. For now, I just want to send a big hug and thanks to Imran.
Would just want to share few thoughts I think are important when you meet people like Rashmi who are obviously busy and get a lot of queries from strangers-
1. Don’t ask for favors – I never asked her to endorse my book or anything. I sent her a copy, if she likes it, she will mention it. Pestering her to read it and give feedback does not make sense. Put yourself in their shoes and ask if you would be happy doing what you are asking them to.
2. Instead of focusing on yourself, focus on what you can offer first. By asking for their time, you are asking something they are very short of. So, make it worth their time. Find out what kind of assistance or feedback or anything you can offer. If done genuinely, nothing is too small. I shared some ideas for Rashmi’s website and other stuff. It turned into a longer discussion.
3. Make it easier for them to help you – reduce the back and forth, keep it short and straight forward.
4. Listen to their advice instead of tooting your horn. Show them you can do instead of talk.
5. Be a pleasant person to talk to if you want to convert a phone call to a longer relation.
I would like to keep spreading the good karma Imran and Asha have sent by way by being so helpful here. If I can be of any help to anyone (in field of books, publishing, content marketing, networking), I will do my best 🙂
