What did I find? Evangelists

Millennium Cargo

Us Brits have some weird quirks.

Take apologising as an example.

Here in the UK, if you accidentally bump into someone when you’re walking, you apologise profusely. Sounds normal right?

But what if they bump into you?

You still apologise profusely. Sorry, so sorry, excuse me… It doesn’t matter whose fault it was - it doesn’t even matter if they did it on purpose! Just apologise. At least 3 times.

I’ve missed bumping into strangers and apologising this year. Thanks to the covid lockdowns in the UK I’ve not been able to get out much. But I did manage to squeeze in a bit of high street shopping before Christmas.

As I was walking down busy Birmingham New Street - minding my own business, pondering what to buy the Mrs for Christmas - I heard shouting…

So, I stopped and listened.

It didn’t sound like protest shouting. Nor a scuffle or a mugging. So I decided to go investigate… you never know what you might be missing!

The last time I heard this much commotion in town I had accidentally driven into the middle of a lockdown protest and found myself face to face with the Conspiracy Theory King, David Icke.

What did I find? Evangelists.

On this one busy street packed full of cheery Christmas shoppers, stood several evangelists all sharing their passion for their version of god, within feet of each other.

A Jehovah’s Witness, a Muslim and a Christian: all stood upon soapboxes, shouting into megaphones and handing out leaflets.

Now, I’m not a religious man. But I am an open-minded one. I love to learn and I love to hear about other people’s beliefs, views and opinions.

So in true Chadd style, I had a little chat with them.

Did any of them convert me? No. But they did get their message in front of me - which is more than many business owners do!

Many business owners don’t shout about their business loud enough. They don’t send enough emails. They don’t approach enough prospects and they don’t put themselves out there in networking groups.

Why? Fear of getting turned down - or worse - being told to F-Off!

As humans, we’re biologically driven to strive for acceptance by the “tribe” because in our caveman days, being rejected by the tribe would have meant death.

Even though that’s no longer the case, we still hate that feeling of rejection. It hurts real bad - even from a stranger!

But you’ve got to put your big boy (or girl!) pants on and do it anyway.

If a Christian, a Jehovah’s witness and Muslim can all be brave enough to stand in the street, risking abuse, heckling and potential physical assault, then surely you can risk a few cold calls or emails?

Make that phone call. Send those emails. Get on that soapbox and shout if you have to! Because no one is going to promote your business for you.

Chadd Blunt
Managing Director
Millennium Cargo