And I definitely know that there’s just a lot of nervous tension, there’s a lot of awkwardness that’s physical. When you’re talking about doing this kind of outreach, it’s normal to feel anxious or for your stomach to churn. But I want you to remember that this entire system, everything that you’re seeing here, was literally the goal number one, written in broad bold ink, was just to give everybody the ability to do this without stress. The system is literally designed to reduce stress and support you. And we’ve literally made it very easy because being part of an organization means you are going to receive the context that you need for every conversation. And you don’t need this to be very long winded. You don’t need to over explain anything.

This is just reminding people of your conversation. And timing is everything. You do want to give people time to respond. You can wait almost a week before following up. That’s usually a good amount of time. And it’s easy to remember the day, you know, I talk to you on a Tuesday, it’s another Tuesday, my body’s in the same place, my mind’s in the same place, I’m calling you again, right? Remember that.

You can also just send an email. And a lot of the time if I’m calling someone on the phone, I’ll say, and can I send you an email? And then that email will have the flyer, it’ll have the RSVP information, it’ll have how to join or apply or whatever. If no response, wait another week, try one more time. If you try again for two weeks, maybe they’re just too busy. And of course, you know, respect people’s preferred timing. If people know, like if they say you’re on the phone and they’re like, call me tomorrow at 3, just call them tomorrow at 3, don’t listen to.

You should listen to them, not to me. But you know, just following up in a timely way just shows a little bit of reliability and it shows more commitment than most people find in their day to day life. How often do people follow up with you about conversations? Right? Probably not so much. We also want to make things personal, you know, add some reference to your last conversation. How did you talk to them?

Maybe you know about an event, maybe you had some conversation, they were excited or interested or intrigued about something, whatever you remember. And this is why it’s so important to take notes because now you can talk to 100 people and remember them and you know, in the space of half a sentence. We’re just trying to show that you’re better than a robot and that you genuinely care about who they are and what their response is. And you shouldn’t be too attached to this because you know, whether they are, they do or don’t want to host an event for some group that you’re a part of that doesn’t have any reflection on you at all. So there’s really nothing to be worried about. You just add some personal touch that makes it clear that you are interested in them. Keep it short.

This follow up shouldn’t even take as long as it’s taking me to explain what a follow up is to you. Keep it short, keep it friendly. Two sentences probably enough. Remind them of your message. Ask them to talk to you. There’s really no need to overly explain anything. One of the big benefits, just one of the things that I love is that, you know, we can kind of follow up in a casual way.

And you have so much. One of the reasons why you can follow up in a casual way is because the website has all of the sign ins, all of the logins, all of the content, all of the channels, all of the like, the webinars, the contacts, the informations, the petitions, it’s all there. So you’re just sending people to the website and they can like things or not like it and sort of leave you alone. And you can also offer flexibility because of this. So like, if somebody sounds like they’re too busy to host an event, you say, hey, can I drop a flyer by? You know, and that’s pretty good. So you want to be almost downselling and sort of finding the right level of engagement for anybody.

Maybe they don’t have time to host an event, but they can share a flyer or they can do an interview, you know, whatever it is, or even if they just tell you good luck and they’re happy, they like a post. But be understanding, be accommodating. When you offer all of these different ways for someone to get involved. Easy to get a yes, Easy to get a yes. And when you follow up, you can even give people these things we want to have. And just depending on the date that you get this, we’re going to have videos that you can give people. Like you can add value with.

Oh, we’ll have a video about the environment or we’ll have a video about labor. We’ll have like something that, that they can watch that has some good production value that comes from us and keeps the conversation going and it gives them a chance to, you know, feel their whatever right and use different channels by all means. Like if, if, if, if a call doesn’t work, send an email. If an email doesn’t work, send a text. If that doesn’t work, try a social media message. You know, using different channels of outreach can improve your chances of getting that reply. Now obviously, like, there’s limits on this.

You know, if you send two follow ups, like, honestly, three is a lot of follow ups. Even over the course of a month, you, you know, two is plenty, plenty, plenty. And you’ve just got to have a knowledge in yourself. And this is so dependent on the campaign, who you’re talking to, how busy people are. Just know when it’s time to step back. You know, you try two or three tries, a follow up and they’re not responding. Just let it go.

Every contact doesn’t need to lead to a partnership. They might be busy and that’s just okay. Try to leave on a positive note and keep things positive. Even if they’re a jerk to you, depersonalize. Really think about their relationship with us as a group. And if you think that they’re a jerk in a way that it’s like not, no human being should interact with these guys. I know so many people that are like that, so it wouldn’t shock us.

But you know that that’s just all the name of the game. That’s follow up.

And it is vital. I mean, look, having these relationships over time is big. It lets us share community updates or event invitations and keep a connection alive without expecting immediate results. Remember, this is your city. This is a conflict that’s going to exist for the next 20 years, the next 25 years. It’s going to exist while the climate changes. As long as you are here in Atlanta, these relationships are going to exist.

So this is not a one year battle. This is not a one month battle. This is not a one election cycle battle. This is a lifetime battle. So those genuine touch points, they strengthen relationships and they can only grow over time. And remember that for us as an organization, if we don’t have these follow ups, you’ll see it because the organization will start to suck. Like, you know, we can’t make anyone make calls or talk to people.

But like, if we don’t have follow ups and we don’t have calls, we’re not gonna have events, we’re not gonna have volunteers, we’re not gonna have action, we’re not gonna have anything. So obviously everybody doesn’t need to make calls all the time. But some of us have to in order for us to thrive. And whenever you do it, even if you’re doing it with someone in a group, or you’re doing it solo, or you’re doing it at any time of day, this helps us succeed as a community. So that’s follow up. That’s how you follow up without it being weird. And I hope that you liked it and it made sense to you.