Eleanor Clifton: NO. MAYBE. YES!

Applying skills that I learned before this experience...

During my time at the organization, I was asked to help with rebranding and reengaging followers. This task naturally evolved into conversations where they envisioned organizing potential volunteers. Volunteer organization in my past experience requires an innate understanding of what would motivate them to become involved. It requires carefully crafted posts that push the message out into the community. Additionally, to make the volunteer experience positive, there is a huge reliance on corporate contributions. Donuts, pastries, bagels and coffee bars for morning shifts are the norm for volunteer teams. Sub sandwiches, pastas, pizza, salads, soft drinks and typical for lunch and/or dinner. These meals are not budgeted for the event. They are entirely provided by companies looking for exposure and goodwill. Getting companies to donate these meals is a larger undertaking than one would think. I shared my experience in the sports world with my current. team. It was no surprise that people hate to be in the position of asking for things because they don't want to hear the word "no". Getting shut down during a conversation, even yelled at is very unpleasant (which is something that did not happen during this job but had happened before to me). In some twisted way, you take it personally. I heard "no" a lot in attempting to fulfill the expectations of rebranding. It was always a little bitter going down. Many of the followers and supporters of EHMA were from older demographics that tended to view social media as a younger generation tool (the word tool is used loosely). In fact, they did not even see the potential social media had at all.

At some point, however, I realized that if I really broke down the reasoning and the information about WHY we use social media each "no" or silent response I got just made the next conversation more interesting.

So here’s how I handled it:

“No” in some cases just meant “no". For whatever reason, I couldn’t quite marry our objectives with the company's goals. In other situations, “no” actually was an opportunity to provide more information. I realized for some people it was just easier to tell me “no” to cut the conversation short or the idea. Maybe I had emailed at a bad time. Maybe I hadn’t delivered my message as clearly as I had planned. Good, follow up questions respectfully delivered helped me determine if more information might move a “no” to a “maybe”.  In this situation, I got better and better over the course of my work in reading the verbal cues and getting a “yes”!

I didn't know that "no" could make me also want to fight harder, depending on the concept. Nothing worthwhile comes easy and having to work for something I believed in and supported just ultimately made my success sweeter.  

No matter what you are aiming for (position in Greek life or on campus, new job or internship, student club or social cause) don’t let “no” keep you from achieving your accomplishments and goals.