Productive people are accessible, unproductive, people make it difficult to get ahold of them. Of course, there's always the exception of some famous reclusive Hollywood celebrity, who's already rich, already famous, who makes agents and directors, fax them on new movie script, and doesn't return phone calls for six months. But that only works after you've had a tremendous number of huge international successes. For most people, that just doesn't work. In my experience, productive people make it easy to find them. They have phone numbers on their websites, they have a business card still, even in this day.
They have email addresses, they check their email, not every five minutes but once a day. They have voicemail that actually works. Now, some of you who are under 35 Anything that sounds crazy, only an insane old codger would use voicemail. I got news for you. voicemail is wildly effective and popular with people my demographic and older, and even some younger if you don't have voicemail, then you're making it difficult for people to reach you. And it's got to be a voicemail that is cleared out so someone can leave a message.
Nothing irritates me more than trying to get ahold of someone I call I listened to a long voicemail message, I'm ready to leave a message and then it's at the user has not empty their voicemail. It's fun, you can't leave a message recording. Now there's a section later on in this course about all the things you need to do just to be professional in the workplace. But this is a huge concept I want to hit on right now which is be accessible. Put your phone number and your email address on business cards on your website on Facebook. And then return calls would be nice to return text if someone texts you.
Too many people get lazy and they had a voicemail message once it got deleted, they never replaced it. When I hear someone and I've call their number and I just get a generic message you've reached 917 ba ba ba ba. My first thought is, Oh, did I call the right number? How do I know if this is the right number? So you're wasting my time having to second guess make sure I didn't miss dial. The other problem is it makes it sound like you're not a productive person.
It makes it sound like you are a drug dealer and the week before you are used car salesperson and the week before you were something else and now you don't want anyone to know your name or identity. So you don't have a real voicemail. That's simply not how productive people operate. You might not aspire to be some serious formal professional business person. But regardless of what it is you do, it can't hurt to make it easier for people to get ahold of you. You might be 15 years old and into street art.
You want to make it easier for other people who care about that to reach you. It might not be through a voicemail, but it's got to be some way that people know. They can make one effort to reach you know that you got the message. And that if you're interested, you will respond. That's what's critical. At some point maybe voicemail becomes obsolete.
Faxes are now obsolete, you no longer have to have a fax machine so technologies can change. But what doesn't change is a basic attitude. I want to be accessible to other people the way they want to reach me not the way I necessarily want Want to reach them