(Day 46) The Breakthrough, (Fundraising II)

Monday 16^th April (Day 46)

The Breakthrough

I was feeling shaky and my confidence was low after lunch.  Nobody had stopped for me in a while and I was in that vicious fundraiser circle of rejection*.  But by late afternoon that had all changed.  By 4 o’clock I was on a massive high.  Throughout the day I had been getting feedback and little tips from my team on how to improve and they were all working well.  What really helped me was watching Will work and borrowing ideas from him.

I think my issue before with fundraising is that I have only work with girls and I’m not complaining but, this was the first time I have fundraised with another guy and it helped me immensely.  There was nothing wrong with the girls I had worked with but I can’t really learn from them.  Girls fundraise differently from guys; they have a different approach and different assets to use. I needed a role model and Will was perfect.  It was his quirky, upbeat approach.

I decided to try it his way and use his opening lines and to borrow some of his quirky attitude and soon I was flying.  I was having so much fun greeting people in this light hearted way.  Before I was greeting people hoping they would stop, but now I was greeting people expecting them to stop.

The afternoon flew past and by 6 o’clock when we finish I still wanted to keep going.  So looking back to this morning I have progressed so much, from this shy shaky guy trying to stop a few people to this confident happy guy bouncing from one person to the next.  I could talk to anyone now, that choking feeling of awkwardness that made the job so hard had all but gone.

And those negative comments from those people this morning?  If having nice people try and stop them on the street for charity is a major inconvenience then they clearly have issues.

And to be honest, they can fuck off.

Anyway, I think I have cracked it, this fundraising job.  The secret is to have fun with the job.  The only issue is that I still haven’t managed to sign anyone up.  I have to sign someone up tomorrow or I will probably get fired.  This would be a shame because I am so close now to nailing this job.  I just hope tonight I sleep well and tomorrow I continue exactly where I left off.