I was sweating bullets.  “We normally only hire native French speakers for these positions,” the manager sneered.  My first call in my summer telemarketing job had been less than stellar.  I was calling in French to business execs in France, Belgium and Quebec.  The young manager was not much older than me and was eager to throw his weight around.  I could tell that he was going to be trouble.

A Mistake?

I muttered something and kept calling.  The next conversation was not better.   “Not interested.”  This was going to be rough. Had I made a mistake taking this job?  Was my French not up to par?  Had this been too much of a risk?  Was I just setting myself up for massive humiliation? There was no way to know yet so I stayed on the phone, hoping against hope that the “next call” would be better.  It rarely was.

It got worse

My direct supervisor was not much of a creative soul and simply opted for old school pressure.  “Show me the leads (“yes” responses) Bjorn!  I need better than this!”  He kept at it day in, day out.  I was heating up for a shouting match.  Finally I took him into a conference room.  “You better lay off, your pressure isn’t working!”  I told him.  Luckily, the comment seemed to help more than it hurt.  He gave me more space.

Pushing Aside Disbelief

“The people that get leads are the ones that believe they will…” I overheard another floor manager, (one that I liked) say to another caller.  I wasn’t sure how much it would help but I decided to try this approach and believe that I would rake in leads.  I physically stood up and walked around during calls.   I got weird looks.   I ignored the fact that the entire remainder of the French team were native French speakers.  I pushed, and pushed and pushed.  It was a risky, aggressive approach because it drew a lot of attention and would be hilarious to others if it failed. The French team started joking about my approach and the overly casual French I was using to “close” and get leads.  I kept going.

The Results

As I pushed aside the fear of failure and stopped thinking about the absurd risks involved in trying to sell in a foreign language, the results started coming in.  First it was one or two leads here and there.  Then they came in more steadily.  Somehow my non-native French turned out to be a plus because the execs thought I was more of a technical expert calling from the US and not just another telemarketer.   Every time a lead came in, I would come over and tell my supervisor.  The leads would go up on a white board in a tally format.  I kept calling, the tally marks kept going up.  Toward the 2-month mark I was outselling the rest of the French team combined.  I won telemarketer of the month and finished the summer off on a high.

Risks, it turned out, were a lot less scary if you plunged into them.  I try to think back to that summer when I face big challenges. I remind myself to push fear aside and take action.

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Bjorn Karlman

You cannot BELIEVE how excited I am.  I am going to break from the norm here on CultureMutt and ask you to PLEASE vote for me  (scroll down on the linked page and you’ll see my name listed). Why?

Jammie and I are giddy wth excitement!

Because Tim Ferriss, the TOP 1000 Blogger / New York Times Bestselling Author whom I look up to HUGELY, just shortlisted me from a group of about 300 fundraisers and I am now in the final group of 5 to be considered for a Round-the-World-Trip.

I could not believe that I had been shortlisted, it took a friend from Atlanta giving me the heads-up on Facebook for me to go and check the results.

It gets even better.  Even if I don’t win the RTW ticket, I still have a 3 out of 5 chance to be listed as one of 10 fundraisers that helped bring in $20,000 for one of three schools (with Tim’s matching gift the total raised will be $60,000 and his combined efforts will therefore build three schools) that are being built through the organization Room to Read.

Just over two weeks ago, on July 31st, I wrote What Really Matters to You, a post that helped to start get the ball rolling in terms of my own fundraising for the cause.  I explained that, in line with CultureMutt’s pursuit of “savvy, global do-gooding” I was supporting Tim Ferriss who

is absolutely one of the “architects of positive change” that I aim to emulate and write about.  He’s turning 34 and instead of b-day presents he’s asking people to donate to Room to Read – World Change Starts with Educated Children that, among other things, builds libraries in Asia and Africa.  His post invites readers to give to the cause and includes the hook that if you give and spread the word… he’ll include you in a drawing for a free round-the-world air ticket:

I ended up doing a ton of online promotion which you can read about on the voting page.  The result was that I made the cut and was listed as one of Tim’s top 5 promoters.  Tim’s readers are now voting on the best commenter/promoter out of the five shortlisted contestants.

I am trying to keep this post short and to the point but, once again, I would REALLY appreciate your vote.  My wife Jammie and I have already committed to visiting at least one of the schools/libraries that will be built as a result of this fundraising, regardless of whether I win or not.  But how much fun would it be to win!

The voting link  (look for the voting section at the bottom of Tim’s post)

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Bjorn Karlman

No matter what your cause, one of the keys to a killer fundraising strategy is recognizing your donors.  This can be tricky since culture, religion, opinion and taste all come into play in deciding what works as a “thank you”.  A common yet much-debated form of recognition is the donor wall.  You’ve seen them in the lobbies of hospitals, libraries and performance halls – they list the names of contributors to a fundraising project.  Some love them.  Some hate them.  Here’s a starter list of pros and cons for this kind of a wall.

Arguments AGAINST Donor Walls

1)  People might give simply to flaunt their generosity on the wall.

2)  Fundraisers are pressured to focus on stroking donor egos to get them to give.

3)  Religious arguments such as this one:  “‘But thou, doing kindness, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth.” – Matthew  6:3 (Young’s Literal Translation)

Arguments FOR Donor Walls

1)  It’s only right to say “thank you” and donor walls are a very public way to do so.

2)  Rather than appealing to ego, donor walls allow people to honor the memory of loved ones or to leave a legacy and set an example.

3)  A lot of people would not give unless they were recognized.

The Juggling Act

I definitely struggle with the question of how to recognize and motivate donors that give to the causes that I raise money for.  My feeling is that while I may not be able to influence the reasons people give, I can make sure that the ways I motivate them to support my cause, are positive.   If people understand the cause, connect with it and make it their own, then whether or not you have a donor wall is not the key question.

Bjorn Karlman

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