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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 8:58:38 am

The Follow-Up You Skipped

The meeting went well. Everyone agreed on that. He was articulate, confident, well prepared. He read the room perfectly, asked the right questions, left a strong impression. People exchanged cards. There were warm handshakes and genuine smiles. The kind of first meeting that feels like the beginning of something real. And then nothing. No email. No message. No acknowledgement that the conversation had ever happened. Days passed. Then a week. The impression he had worked so carefully to create...

The Follow-Up You Skipped

The meeting went well. Everyone agreed on that. He was articulate, confident, well prepared. He read the room perfectly, asked the right questions, left a strong impression. People exchanged cards. There were warm handshakes and genuine smiles. The kind of first meeting that feels like the beginning of something real. And then nothing. No email. No message. No acknowledgement that the conversation had ever happened. Days passed. Then a week. The impression he had worked so carefully to create began to quietly unravel — not because of anything he said in the room, but because of everything he failed to do after leaving it. This is one of the most common and costliest personal brand mistakes I observe in accomplished founders. Not the dramatic failures. The invisible ones. The follow-up that never came. Most founders understand the importance of the first impression. They prepare for it, invest in it, obsess over it. The handshake, the introduction, the pitch these receive enormous attention. And then the meeting ends and the attention goes with it. What happens next the email sent within twenty-four hours, the specific reference to something discussed, the simple act of saying "it was genuinely good to meet you" is treated as optional. A nicety. Something to get to when there is time. There is never time. And that silence communicates something to everyone on the other side of it. Think about the last significant meeting you had. A potential client, a collaborator, a connection that felt genuinely promising. Did you follow up? Within twenty-four hours? With something specific enough to show that you were actually present in the conversation not just physically in the room? Or did you return to the business of your day and tell yourself you would get to it later? Because here is what the person on the other side experienced. They left the meeting with a positive impression. They may have even spoken about you to someone else — told a peer about this founder they had just met, someone worth knowing. And then the silence arrived. And with it, a quiet internal conversation that went something like this: maybe they were not as interested as they seemed. Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe they do this with everyone. The recalibration is never announced. It simply happens. And the version of you that existed in their mind before the silence is never quite the same after it. The person who seemed so impressive in the room revealed, through their absence, exactly how they operate when nobody is watching them perform. A personal brand is not built only in the moments of visible effort. It is built in the moments of invisible effort the follow-up nobody sees you send, the thank you note nobody required, the specific detail that tells the other person you were genuinely listening. These are the moments that separate the founders who are remembered from the ones who were merely impressive. The irony is that follow-up requires almost no time. A well-crafted message takes three minutes. What it communicates takes far longer to build through any other means. It signals attention, care, professionalism and genuine interest all in a single act that most people cannot be bothered to perform. And for a founder at a serious level where every relationship has compounding potential, where reputation travels faster than any introduction the cost of that silence is never just one missed connection. It is the conversations that never happened. The referrals that went elsewhere. The collaborations that went to someone who simply took three minutes to say it was a pleasure, and here is why. Your brand lives in those three minutes. Not in the meeting itself. In what you choose to do or not do after it ends. If this landed somewhere specific for you, a Founder Brand Audit is a focused consultation call where we examine exactly what your brand is communicating in every room, and in every silence after it. This is the beginning of a specific investment in yourself. Five slots open each week. Book your call here: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

BJP Boost

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

As the dust settles over the recent Assembly elections, the BJP, defying anti-incumbency prediction of political Cassandras and exit polls, is set for a historic third term in Haryana. This will buoy the party after its underwhelming performance in the Lok Sabha polls. The Haryana outcome not only reinforces the BJP’s foothold in national politics but also presents a counter-narrative to the INDIA bloc’s post-election fervour.

Despite the bogey stoked by lingering farmer protests and discontent surrounding the controversial Agniveer scheme, the BJP strategically diversified its approach, relying not solely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s star power—evidenced by his reduced number of rallies—but also on a ground-level consolidation of anti-Jat votes. The Congress’s over-reliance on the Jat community backfired, rallying other groups against it. Interestingly, the Dalit vote, which the Congress anticipated would tilt in its favour, has not completely abandoned the BJP.


At the forefront of the BJP's campaign was Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, whose relatively short tenure allowed him to distance himself from the decade-long rule of the previous administration. By introducing measures to benefit the backward classes, including a significant income limit increase for OBC employment from Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 8 lakh, the BJP effectively shifted the narrative in its favour. Their mantra of ‘bina parchi, bina kharchi Naukri (promising jobs without bribes) resonated with voters.


The BJP’s rejuvenated team, led by key figures such as Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and state leaders, has seemingly addressed concerns that arose following its poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections. The incorporation of new candidates in place of established leaders provided a fresh face that contrasted sharply with the Congress’s decision to recycle incumbents.


In contrast, in Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference, in alliance with the Congress, having crossed the majority threshold, reclaimed its historic dominance and is set to form the government. Here, the BJP’s performance in the first Assembly election held after the abrogation of Article 370, fell short despite its strenuous attempt to position itself as a proponent of development.


The electorate’s apparent rejection of hardline factions like the PDP reflects a nuanced response and win for democracy. Notably, the results have shown a significant rejection of separatist candidates, including those from Engineer Rashid-led Awami Ittehad Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, who failed to make a meaningful impact in the polls.


The BJP’s emphatic victory in Haryana redeems its Lok Sabha misstep but also signals a broader political resurgence, giving the party renewed vigour to march into future contests like the crucial Maharashtra Assembly election.

 
 
 

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