Now Is the Time to Talk to Your Friends Worldwide

You are a successful advisor or insurance professional. You attend conferences. You qualify for MDRT. Over the years you’ve made connections across the country and around the world. This gives you an unprecedented opportunity to learn about day-to-day life during the pandemic in their corner of the world. Not news headlines. First-person accounts. This provides great material for client conversations in your local market.

(Related: 8 Ways to Build Relationships While Social Distancing)

My wife and I love to travel. We cruise. We fly. We meet people, exchange contact information and keep in touch. Here are some highlights from recent emails:

1. England. Those over 70 with particular health conditions have been advised to stay home for three months! No exercise. No shopping. A friend with a relative in a coastal city reports receiving weekly food parcels delivered free of charge. It’s an incentive to keep you indoors.

2. Dubai. A hotel friend still goes to work occasionally, yet his wife and children are at home. His wife runs “school” for the children. The children are required to wear their school uniforms while they are being taught and address their mother as “Miss (first name).” This keeps up the structure of “we are going to school now.”

3. Holland. A Scottish friend works on a drilling rig in the “Dutch sector” in the North Sea. He’s on the rig for three weeks, off for three, and back on again. The company advises he stay in Holland for the middle three weeks because he might not be able to get back to Holland if he returns home and the borders close.

4. Scotland. Friends retired and bought a village shop and post office a few years ago. Does that sound like a brilliant strategy today!!! They are obviously an essential village service.