One thing I'll never understand about certain people

I like to think I've seen it all, but there are still things I'll never understand truly

Happy Monday folks,

Another Monday means another weekly update and hopefully some business motivation.

Let’s jump in:

Story: One thing I’ll never understand

One thing I’ll never understand, and highly recommend not doing (especially if you’re a business owner), is people who don’t respect the time of others.

Here’s what I mean.

As most of you know I spend my days working on an immigration tech startup called Visto. And this includes a lot of marketing and selling of our platform - outbound, inbound, demo’s of the product, etc.

This means a lot of scheduled calls, calendar events, that kind of stuff. We also have a booking link on our website where prospective clients can just book appointments with me if they’d like to see what the product is like.

Well, in the last week I had someone book - and then proceed to not show up for - 3 separate demos.

This means they booked a call with me, then skipped it, then booked another call with me, then skipped it, then booked a third call with me. Before the third call I sent them an email explaining that when someone books a call with me, I always prepare and show up on time - and would appreciate if they do to.

Well, surprise surprise, they skipped the third call too (the demo hat-trick, so to speak).

Now this isn’t a huge deal - it’s business. Especially if you do sales you know that this stuff happens and I didn’t let it bother me.

But in the world of b2b (business to business) I don’t understand how or why anyone would ever do that:

• Why bother booking with someone if you’re not going to show up?

• If something did come up that made it so you can’t attend the call, why not let the other person know?

• And even still, if it was such an emergency that you couldn’t let them know ahead of time, why not let them know after?

Anyway, after hundreds of calls and demos, maybe even thousands, it’s led me to believe that there are two types of people: those that respect the time of others, and those that don’t.

And at this point I’d rather not even work with the latter. If someone so clearly shows that they don’t respect your time at all, they will probably be a terrible client, partner, person to work with, etc.

As we continue to grow, I now seek out clients that are more “my style” - we respect each others time, we genuinely care about doing good in the world, and that makes for much better business relationships.

Suffice to say, if this person does try booking in for a 4th time, I’ll be letting them know that it won’t be a good fit.

Key takeaway: Find “your people” to do business with

Really two lessons here.

First, just be a good person and respect other peoples time. If you do, they will reciprocate and you will have much better relationships because of it. For example, the person from above is someone I would never refer a client to, because I know they’ll probably treat clients the same way - with a lack of respect.

Second, and this can be harder to stomach if you have a newer business and clients are harder to come by, but it can actually be a great idea to vet your own clients just like they vet you.

Again, if you’re just starting out and money is tight then you might not be able to (yet), but go looking for prospective clients just like you would a prospective partner - make sure they’re the kind of person/company that fits your mold and that you’ll enjoy working with/for them.

Otherwise they might not even be worth the deal, and your time would be better spent finding a better-fitting client.

Content for the week:

Vlog: I’m really starting to enjoy these weekly vlogs, which are kind of like a verbal diary. Almost therapeutic. I talk about my last week and why I recommend that everyone should be vlogging:

Book: I decided to pause about half way through Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World. It’s an interesting read about the bankers who caused the Great Depression, but very dense and tough to get through right before bed.

Shifted over to more of a business biography - which I always enjoy - and am about 1/4 of the way through The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World's Imagination. Pretty self-explanatory, and I’m enjoying it so far. Full review when I’m done.

Tiktok: my most viewed Tiktok vid from the last week is on my keys to productivity as an entrepreneur - do you agree with it?

Thanks as always for following along on my journey and have a great week,

- Josh Schachnow

Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai

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If you’re looking for more of my help, you can check out:

1. My immigration tech platform, Visto, that helps Canadian immigration firms prep and file applications much quicker.

2. Make sure you’re subscribed on Youtube where I post the weekly vlog and am also posting shorter snippets of my tips/advice as Youtube Shorts!