I survived the Pandemic by engaging creatively

In April 2020, as the whole world and most of my clients were shutting down due to the pandemic, I saw an online meme that really offended me. I can’t remember exactly what it said and I’ve tried searching for it half-heartedly and can’t find it, but the gist went along the lines of “If you don’t make it through the pandemic without starting a business, mastering a foreign language, writing a novel, earning an advanced degree, or getting in shape, the problem is you.”

So wrong on so many levels.

For starters, people were dying and many weren’t going to make it through the pandemic at all. Others were going to get sick and suffer lasting damage or have to take care of family members who couldn’t take care of themselves. Schools were closed, plans put on hold, and business shut down. People were uncertain about their futures, people were grieving, and people were flat-out scared. I know I was.

The breath-taking cynicism that the pandemic was some glorious, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those driven enough to take personal advantage of it offended me to the core.

So, I decided to do the exact opposite.

I remembered something a cross-country coach used to say when I was in middle school — “Take the lead on the uphill.” — and wrote a short article about it. The idea is that everyone can run downhill quickly but it takes heart to push harder and resist the natural inclination to slow down when going uphill. If we collectively pushed our way through the pandemic, we would make it through together and come out of it better.

But it wasn’t enough to just post an article and forget it. I felt moved to reach out to every connection I had on LinkedIn, show them the article, and ask a simple question: do you have a motivational quote that keeps you going during difficult times?

The response was overwhelming.

Thousands of people replied with favorite quotes and I engaged with every single one of them. I added all of the quotes, which ranged from Biblical verses to science fiction, to the article even if they weren’t things that I particularly agreed with because I knew they were important to the people who sent them. I also added a few pictures of signs posted in my neighborhood that I spotted while walking my dog.

More importantly, I responded to almost every reply, which led to long conversations with people around the world, the vast majority of whom I’d never spoken to even though we were connected. (I did ignore the few conspiracy theorists who sent me anti-science, xenophobic, or political rants because life is just too short.)

We talked about things like our families and our businesses, the latest medical research, bourbon, post-pandemic plans, community outreach, jokes, advice, hopes, fears, loss and grief. Some people asked me for marketing or career advice and I shared freely, noting that I’ve only had the successes that I’ve had because others shared freely with me. Many people thanked me for being the only person who reached out to check on them and a handful promised to replicate my efforts with their networks. I never met anyone in person but did feel like I was part of a much bigger community.

While most of the people I engaged with appreciated the outreach, occasionally, someone would accuse me of cynically exploiting tragedy for personal economic gain, an understandable concern. I would explain that I was not capturing any personal information in a database, was not actively selling any products or services, and was not gathering material for a book. In fact, this is the first time I’ve publicly discussed the article since I posted it.

Interestingly, as it grew in length, the article began to take on a life of its own. It never went viral, but I could see from my analytics that complete strangers were looking at it and I was told that some Alcoholics Anonymous groups were sharing it as inspiration. For a time, it even ranked in Google as one of the top sources of quotes about 2020, which I’ll admit is a source of geeky pride.

Beyond the immeasurable personal and social benefit of the quotes outreach, there was a significant and completely unexpected financial benefit. Most of my clients had stopped marketing at the beginning of the pandemic and, while most started up again within a few months, there was a sizeable gap in my income. Like everyone, I was hurting, too. Thankfully, one of the first people I reached out to asked me to look at her business. A few Zoom calls and emails led to a contract with an organization that became and remains the largest client with whom I didn’t have a prior relationship. In fact, it would be well over a year before we met in person and when that contact moved on to a new organization, she hired us to represent that company as well.

So, in terms of financial ROI, my consistent outreach to and genuine engagement with completely strangers on LinkedIn completely dwarfs any advertising campaign, any email, sales rep, or anything else I’ve tried. Four years later, it’s still responsible for a significant portion of my company’s revenue. Plus, it helped maintain my spirits during some pretty dark days and brightened the inboxes of hundreds of others as well.

The unanswerable question in all of this: were these outstanding results merely luck or were they the inevitable outcome of a replicable process? While acknowledging the former, I lean towards the latter. In fact, I’m convinced that if I had been more proactive about documenting positive conversations and had made even a nominal effort to follow up with the most engaged people, I would have seen a significantly greater payoff.

The bottom line is that engagement matters. People buy from those they know, like, and trust and while you can’t buy KLT, you can earn it if you’re willing to do the work.

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