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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.)

Bad Roads, Ugly Politics


The pathetic state of roads in Mumbai city as well as its suburbs has made daily commute a dangerous affair. The residents are miffed with the BMC over its lackadaisical attitude. Mumbaikars tweet photos, post videos to grab attention, but everything is in vain. Who cares for the common people. Backbreaking journeys have become part and parcel of life. Political leaders are busy mud-slinging.


This year the monsoon took a break after almost four and half months. During this time some of the roads virtually became non commutable. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde first announced to make Mumbai roads pothole free.


Its almost two years now the BMC has concretised only 9 percent of roads it planned to concretise. This decision was taken when it came to light that due to the properties of bitumen in asphalt roads, potholes are a regular occurrence due to contact with water during monsoons.


Hence, to solve the problem of potholes, the corporation has adopted a policy of cement concreting of 6-meter-wide roads in phases. The decision was taken but the dilly-dallying affair made things more difficult.


Mumbai’s traffic does put a lot of strain on roads which is not the case in the other developed countries. Second most important aspect is concretisation of roads is done partly and in phases.


The worst problem which is faced is repeated digging for cables and drainage, which weakens the roads. Above all corruption in BMC makes matters worse as a result everything comes to grinding halt.


According to experts, repairing potholes is a reaction with symptomatic treatment. By and large we are dispensing superficial treatment without addressing the root cause. The long-term solution will be to have roads with no potholes but what we need is the means and technology to achieve this. But for this political will is necessary which we lack on every step.


Mumbaikar’s are convience that corruption in the municipal corporation is the main reason. Contractors have had a monopoly over the last 20 years and this is the reason why reputed companies never come ahead for these projects.


As a result, in the name of attendance and repair, the BMC does shoddy work. Crores are spent but the end result is nothing. The BMC is not paying attention to the crust. If the crust is weak, potholes will see an increase. Without any thought or technical know-how, potholes are filled with cold mix.


This is the reason why the city and suburbs continue to have craters on the roads.


Craters, a serious threat to the safety and security of people. Mumbaikars fade up from their repeated visits to orthopedic surgeons.


They are in a mood to teach a proper lesson to those who were at the helm of the affairs.

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