[vc_row type=”full_width_background” bg_position=”left top” bg_repeat=”no-repeat” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” top_padding=”40″ bottom_padding=”20″][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Summer’s here and the kids are out of school, which can only mean one thing… a lemonade stand.
Two days after school lets out, my little 8 year old daughter, Finley, wants to have a lemonade stand. She spends an hour designing the signs advertising her business and my wife helps get her setup with lemonade, cookies, cups, chairs, and a table.
After quite a bit of preparation, she sets up shop outside our house on the sidewalk, sits in her chair, and waits. And waits. And waits.
As I was busy working on my mac in my office, I get a text from my wife – “Please go out and buy some lemonade… not one person has stopped in over 30 minutes”. I immediately stopped what I was doing and went to check out the situation. Of course, I had no cash, so I told my wife I would go out and give her a hand. As I was making my way out to the stand, I could see my Finley packing up her stuff with a frown on her face wanting to give up.
I told her we weren’t ready to give up yet and let’s see if we could do this together. After much convincing, she sat back down with me and I asked her why she thought people weren’t stopping. She told me she was just sitting there hoping people would stop. After a little thought, I told her we should try waving to people as they went by. She smiled at me with a look like, Dad, you really are Phil from Modern Family.
The next car came by and I, not we, waved. The lady in the car waved back, but didn’t stop. But the next dude in a big dump truck saw me wave, saw my little girl, and stopped. Finley’s eyes lit up and she proudly served him some fresh lemonade. That was all it took. She was convinced. She started waving to every car that went by and sure enough within 45 minutes, she had made $24. The afternoon was a success.
A very important lesson was learned by me that afternoon with my sweet little Finn. You can spend a ton of time creating products and services, promoting them to the world, but if you don’t engage with people and bring them close, they will just pass you by.
We all lead really busy lives and get bombarded by so many businesses vying for our time and money. The ones who wave, look you in the eye, and build relationships, win. All day, everyday.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]