Went Fishing, Caught Some Guilt

It’s a subtle thing this getting to know people. When you do it in a concentrated manner, when you go door to door, you get to see things that you otherwise would not notice. The look of enquiry on someone’s face when you first approach them and then the tangible change of mood once you’ve made your reason for being there, and for taking up their time, clear. I’ve been talking to retailers and their staff mainly, over the last couple of days and even in so short a time, ten to fifteen interactions maybe, I have realised how lucky I am to have Made by Fun as a reason to talk.

They are specialised beings, people who work with the public. In shops they are obviously waiting to help you and convert you into a customer. When you don’t immediately act in one of the few expected manners, it is noticed. There is a moment of enquiry before I jump into my story about Made by Fun. Then there is often a smile as understanding (or amusement at my imperfect Flemish) kicks in, a promise to look at the website, and an exchange of names. People seem to be genuinely interested and when given a card at once understand the idea behind Made by Fun. It makes for an easy interaction. They may look at the website, they may not, but they are invariably helpful and, well, at the very least, I’ve introduced myself.

It is the ease of this interaction when talking about Made by Fun, the:

“Hi, I’d just like to tell you the story of Made by Fun, it’s an idea where artwork made by fun by mentally handicapped people is turned into beautiful products like this card...”

And:

“This is a prototype, but if we get some investment I’d hope to ditch the plastic. Every card is a unique work of art”

And:

“We’re looking for groups in the Antwerp area do you know of anyone?”

That makes it a pleasure.

As soon as I mention handicapped people and the artwork it all seems to make sense to the person I am talking to. There is a definite positive spin to anything that I then say, there’s an immediate understanding. It is like I am leveraging their brand. There is an “Oh, I get it, it’s not for himself” moment.

If I were to go in there just talking about myself and a product I wanted to sell, that short-hand would be lost. It would be that much harder to nurture goodwill. The mentally handicapped, our goodwill towards them, a good cause. It is like their branding. The power of a brand in action was what I was seeing. It should be of no surprise; it is the concept behind Made by Fun.

Customers of Made by Fun will be helping the handicapped people who make the art, and eventually the products containing the art, and in return will receive unique products. But really it is all about where the art comes from. It is all about their brand, and as they cannot wield their brand’s power themselves any business or individual that does should wield it responsibly and respectfully.

I woke up at 5 am today and had to write. I had a niggling need to. A post about what’s coming up later in this piece had failed to make its way on to Facebook, I am a Facebook novice. By the time I realised the post was not on the Made by Fun page it was too late to rewrite. Besides, I needed to add another blog post. Having just the one has had the unfortunate effect of making my face take up a whole page. That’s giving altogether the wrong impression and it needed to be remedied.

On my walk yesterday I came across a group of five or six mentally handicapped people out for a walk with their carers. Now, you understand that they are the holy grail to me. Made by Fun is looking for groups and really anyone with first-hand experience of working with mentally handicapped people, to give me some feedback and advice at the same time as building up a network. Take the language of this website. Firstly, it’s in English and then there are additional worries about tone and first impressions. The website was created as a focal point for the entire Made by Fun idea, to show a professional face to the people that Made by Fun needs in order to begin. Groups are needed for a pilot project to ensure everything is made by fun. To get a better understanding of mentally handicapped group members and their needs. Made by Fun needs to be a little bit edgy, with some challenge in it to fire the imagination, but it still needs to be safe and respectful of the mentally handicapped and their carers.

Personally speaking, I have only limited experience with the mentally handicapped. This was through an annual event with the venture scouts, but over twenty years ago. My most vivid memory of those carol singing evenings was that at a general venture scout meeting there were anything from twenty to thirty male and female scouts. There were generally only five or six at this annual event and the numbers would go up again the following week. From this, with admittedly very imperfect science, I conclude that the mentally handicapped do have a brand but that it is conceptual. When it comes to face to face communication it is more difficult to leverage. I believe that this is because we are unsure of what oral cutlery to use when we sit down to eat with a group of people that we know very little about. We feel awkward. It is unusual. We end up using a fish knife to butter our roll.

Made by Fun hopes to give their brand a new possibility to engage with the outside world, with the needs and feelings of the mentally handicapped people making the art always at the very heart of its reason for being. So, when I saw the group out for a walk yesterday I knew I needed to speak to them to make a link if I could, but afterwards I realised that I was in the wrong mindset when I did.

If someone were to ask me to design a scientific experiment through which you could prove the existence of something by creating a set of circumstances where that something doesn’t exist, then I managed it yesterday. I approached one of the carers who was with the group out for a walk and I was suddenly with the people whose brand I had been using when talking to the friendly local shopkeepers. Suddenly the short-hand, the understanding was gone, because I was talking to someone for whom the mentally handicapped are an everyday experience, not an abstract concept. The idea behind Made by Fun was understood, and the carer smiled and said she’d pass the card on to her boss. The other carer, though, was looking daggers at me. Even though the whole exchange had, I estimate, taken no more than forty five seconds. Surely he was not upset about the inconvenience? What was it? Did I look like a full of himself Ray Ban wearing salesman talking about a slick operation he wants to set up aiming to cunningly exploit the mentally handicapped? Did I look like I was trying to chat up his colleague?

Then, on my walk home I realised that I hadn’t said hello to the group, and I felt awful.

I had been in ‘talk to shopkeeper’ mode when I should have been talking to the people who will be the very foundation of Made by Fun. And for this I’m truly sorry.

#Networking #Guilt #FirstImpressions