One of the gifts of my recent time spent canvassing was that I met a lot of people face to face.  Sure, I meet people all the time, but it's a different experience when you knock on their door and don't know anything about them.  When canvassing I did have a name, and sometimes an age or sex.  So it was always interesting to see who would open the door, how they would react, and what kind of person they would be.

In my normal life I spend a lot of time alone, which I like, because I work at home all day in my office.  I have the dogs to keep me company, and I enjoy the quiet.  But it's also nice to get to talk with someone, whether by email or on the phone, or even on Facebook.   This also gives extra emphasis to my time in the gym each day, as I've just spent the day alone and enjoy interacting with my fellow gym mates.  Luckily, my workout partner John is very social and would say hello to anyone at any time.  So we have a lot of friends and acquaintences in the gym which I appreciate.  These friendly interactions are important to my day.

It has been said that the Obama campaign won the election because of the ground game –many folks like myself who went door to door to speak with people.  In an article posted on slate.com by John Dickerson titled "Why Romney Never Saw it Coming", the author says this:

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign was openly dismissive of the Obama ground game. Why are they wasting so much money with neighborhood offices, they asked? (In Ohio, for example, Obama had almost 100 more offices than Romney.) In retrospect, the Romney team is in awe and full of praise of the Obama operation. “They spent four years working block by block, person by person to build their coalition,” says a top aide. They now recognize that those offices were created to build personal contacts, the most durable and useful way to gain voters.

I really do think this personal interaction is incredibly powerful.  If you want to convince someone of something, talk to them in person, face to face.  In this day of texts and tweets and electronic communication, some of this face time has been lost.  Even just Skyping a conversation with video, rather than talking on the phone, can add great power to communication.  But being in person is the most effective.

Many times over the course of the weeks I was walking neighborhoods, I had encounters which were quite powerful.  Standing on the front porch of a man's house as he describes how his business failed in the recession and how he has been working up north to make ends meet.  Talking to a women whose husband was incapacitated last year, and hearing her stories of struggling to make ends meet, running through their life savings, and having no time to herself at all.

One day I met the owner of Anthony's Pizza, and he was an undecided voter.  As I asked him what issues had him on the fence, he described quite personally how he was concerned about his business and his family.  But having the opportunity to discuss issues in person had an influence on both of us, and it felt like a piece of our democracy in action.

At another door I met two Asian parents who had voted.  But the name on my list to visit was their 22 year old son Max.  The parents were thrilled to see me, as they obviously had had no success in motivating Max to care about voting.  During my conversation with them, Max appeared on his way out the door.  I was able to talk with him personally, explain the importanct of his vote, and get him to promise to vote on Tuesday….with his parents nodding and smiling the entire time.  I have no way of knowing if Max made it to his polling station, but I can easily imagine thousands of conversations like this, all over the country, that DID make a difference on election day.

If you want to make an impact, do it in person.  If you need to talk with someone about something critically important, sit down with them and talk face to face.  I have felt energized by this learning experience during the campaign, and feel I've learned something important for my business and my life!  I hope you'll consider these lessons as well.