What my car getting totaled taught me about relationship building in consulting
There was a strong knock at the door around 9:30pm.
I looked at my buddy Tim, confused.
Was he expecting someone?
He opened his door a few inches and the man on the porch blurted out, "The woman with the white SUV, she's visiting you, right? Her car just got hit."
We ran outside to see the neighbors on their porches.
This was more excitement than they'd seen all year. The houses in Hamtramck are nearly on top of one another and the one way streets are just wide enough to drive down, with cars parked on either side.
My car hadn't just been hit, it had been sideswiped so hard that what hadn't been ripped off had been mangled. The car was almost totaled.
One of the neighbors called the cops and their lights painted blue and red shadows on the street.
The neighbors all mentioned a white utility van that went careening down the road and hit my car.
One older gentleman was sweeping the street clear of debris. Others were giving their account to the police.
I felt like I had 20 eyes on the scene, jumping to my help.
"So, what's the plan here," I asked the policewoman, "You gonna find him?"
"He's long gone by now," she said filling out the remainder of the incident report. "They never return to the scene of the crime."
I went back inside and began the fun process of alerting insurance.
About ten minutes later, while organizing the arrival of the tow truck, we heard screaming outside and ran to the door.
On my left was my messed up SUV and when I turned my head to the right I saw it - the white utility van careening wildly down the street with the cop lights and horn blaring behind it.
HE CAME BACK!
The neighbors filled me in:
The cops were still filling out the original report when he came back, presumably to check the damage he'd done.
But upon his return, he hit my car a SECOND TIME before driving off. This time with the police on his tail.
I can't even make this shit up.
When I told my dad this story his first question to me was, "Laura, are you sure you don't have any enemies?"
I probably do, but to my knowledge none drive a white utility van!
I've never looked at a white utility van in the same way, but it did give me some insight into business.
There are just crazy and unpredictable things that have happened to all of us that we can't foresee and feel totally unprepared before (please see 2020 for reference).
So what do you do when times get tough? Well, if it's your car you call your insurance company.
If it's your business you Zoom into our next #Her250kYear Consulting Roundtable next week.
Just like those neighbors were my eyes and ears when my car got totaled, our businesses benefit from meeting like-minded peers who we can support and be supported by.
This live and highly interactive roundtable is dedicated to networking and sharing strategies for getting more corporate clients.
We may not be the neighborhood watch, but we're darn good at helping each other out.
It's $10 bucks and that's all going to a local charity - Alternatives for Girls. If you want to meet other amazing women in consulting, then you don't want to miss this on Feb 8th at 12pm ET. Men are welcome too.
xx,
Laura
P.S. This happened in 2017, so for my friends reading this - don't worry - this didn't happen recently!
