That Appreciation Conversation

November is here, the month of giving thanks and breaking bread.  But today, I find myself rattled, appreciative and contemplative. I shall explain…

My primary responsibility as a Regional Vice President for HALO Branded Solutions is to engage with promotional products professionals in the West, talk about my company and bring new talent onto our team.  One of the many ways I connect with sales people I don’t yet know is via LinkedIn and their handy InMail function.

Liza Sachs is my counterpart in the South and she sent me a profile link this morning for a gal we’ll call Carrie, based here on the West Coast.  Liza said, “Hey, you should reach out to her, she looks awesome!” since she was searching through LinkedIn and came across Carrie.

I took a look at her LinkedIn profile and was mightily impressed.  She is 43 years old, running her own promo distributorship and also looks to be a singer!  That is literally music to my ears. When they have artistic talents, I connect easily since I too live in an artistic and creative world.  She was just gorgeous and so full of life – I could see the sparkle in her vivid blue eyes.

Except… not so much.

After I sent her an introduction via LinkedIn, told her who I was and why I was reaching out and hoped to hear from her, I then did a Google search – which I probably should have done first.

Because I found an obituary.  

Carrie was deceased.  Dead. It happened about six months ago.

I was floored.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  Here was a young woman so full of life and accomplishment, someone to whom music was the very meaning of her existence… dead at 43.  The article said she had been surrounded by her family, by her boyfriend and step-daughter, by her parents and friends. It mentioned that when she sang, it was with the voice of an angel.

And now, she IS an angel.

No comedy quips from Rick this month.  No little nonsense zingers. Because I’ve lost someone named Carrie.  Someone whose blue eyes burned with passion in the photo on her Linkedin profile.

Not someone I knew.  Not someone I had even heard of two hours ago.  But it’s a loss nevertheless.  Carrie was one of us. And so much more.  People loved her, needed her, embraced her, celebrated her… and she’s just GONE.  Here. Then gone.

It got me thinking today about how fleeting this all is.  That the two-color imprint on that coffee mug isn’t life or death… but a wrong turn, an undiagnosed illness, a fall down the stairs can change EVERYTHING at a moment’s notice.  Any hour, any day. Death raised its horrific head up in Carrie’s life and ended it DECADES sooner than it should have. While I can’t do anything about that – it happened MONTHS ago to people I don’t know – both you and I CAN do something today that could be meaningful for the Carries in OUR lives.

Stop what you were doing before you started reading my monthly Be Bold, Be Different, Be Memorable column and pick up the phone.  Call a client with whom you have a relationship.  Not a buyer… but a friend.  Not a purchasing agent, but someone in YOUR life that you are connected to via the branded merchandise you sell them to address their communications challenges.

Tell them, in your own words, “I wanted to give you a call today.  Not to make a sale. Not to get a project to work on. But for one reason – and that reason is to tell you how much I APPRECIATE you.  I appreciate our professional relationship, that you challenge me and I rise to those challenges to help you accomplish your marketing goals.  Just to say… Thank You for being a treasured customer and a friend. Thank you for being in my life.”

That’s it.  Reach out, tell someone who is significant to your business that you appreciate them.  That you read an article about losing someone important in life and that THEY were the first person you thought of.   Open up and reveal a bit of your heart and you might be surprised where showing vulnerability and appreciation may lead.

Have that Appreciation Conversation.  Expect nothing. Receive everything.

Carrie’s death led to this article and your thoughts of who is important to YOU.  That is worth stopping for, thinking and communicating. Later tonight, you can do likewise with your spouse, your children, your friends, your parents… but right now, during your Promotional Products Day, think about that key client relationship whose loss would damage more than your checking account.  One that would leave a hole in your soul… and tell them.

I’m going to do likewise… by using my sourcing skills to track down Carrie’s family and fiancé to share this article with them.  And share that, all these months later, the story of her loss inspired someone to talk about her, to connect with some online blog readers who were then inspired to reach out and tell the important people in their lives that they are appreciated.

Mr. Lennon asked us to ‘Imagine there’s no heaven…” but that won’t work for me today.  Just the opposite, I’ll imagine there IS a heaven because one day, I most definitely want to meet a promotional products distributor with dancing blue eyes who sings Gershwin and inspired me to write an article about her…

Rick Greene, MAS, is the Western Regional Vice President for Halo Branded Solutions, a Past President of SAAC, and the author of two fantasy novels entitled “Boofalo!” and “Shroom!” available at www.amazon.com.  His third book is a non-fiction biography of character actor Henry Brandon called “Henry Brandon King Of The Bogeymen” published by BearManor Media and is now available everywhere fine books are sold.