The love letter. The written word that comes from minutes and hours spent finding the right thing, or the wrong thing to say. Words to elicit a reaction, or words to suppress one. With Valentine’s Day coming up, we thought about what makes us truly value our business as well as personal relationships. Communication. Respect. Feeling needed or wanted in the workplace. Feeling validated or assured of want by friends, family, and loved ones. In response to that, I did some googling, and found a TED talk. No one is shocked. I am a huge fan of a TED talk. They’re uplifting, they press me, and they make me feel many many ways about how I perceive humans and life in general. Perfect for such a day of love feels, I thought.
Hannah Brencher discussed her mother’s use of the letter and the mail in order to communicate, and how she is now using that process of writing in order to reach strangers across New York City. Not only is she writing a literal ton of letters that she carries on the subway, but she is leaving them all sorts of places like the library, the train station, the Friend’s apartment exterior, and anywhere few and far between.
I, like Brencher, am a fan of letters and cards. I enjoy analyzing the handwriting, the thought, and the process that goes behind them. Someone took the time to pick it out, personalize it, and think about what to put in it. It blows my mind. On the flip side, Summer and I both are fans of writing in a business context. An email, a note in google drive, or a cleverly crafted spreadsheet with a pivot table go a long way in our book. Although digital (and not quite what Brencher was referencing in her talk), these things take time. Hard work, thought in product and communication of said product, and ultimately the relationship built from it, all take time. Time invested in a person, a thing, an entity, and all very important to us as humans.
On this Friday, I will be thanking my clients for their quick responses to our questions. I’ll be sending emails asking to network with more folks to grow my connections. I’ll take the time to ask how someone’s Friday is going. Most importantly, I will be taking the time to remind myself how important the art of communication is as a form of love and respect in today’s business and personal networks.