Many months ago, I went to a cafe with a group of friends where you can pay $20 to play with cats for an hour, and if you want to adopt any of them, it’s free.
Hands down, it was the best $20 I ever spent.
Years ago, I wouldn’t have done this at all. I was more of a dog person than a cat person, but then that changed when I interned at the startup non-profit where they had a tuxedo cat as the office manager.
Anyways, after that cat cafe experience, I thought,
“Instead of paying $20 to interact with cats at a cafe, I might as well volunteer at an animal shelter where I can interact with cats as much as I want for free!”
Plus, it’d be nice to work with animals for a change than with people.
That’s what I’ve been doing since the beginning of August. And more recently, I got trained to interact and socialize with cats at the shelter.
The whole purpose of interacting with cats is this:
(Quick disclaimer: I am still a beginner when it comes to socializing with cats and cat behavior, so what I’m about to say may not be 100% accurate…just putting that out there to look after my own behind.)
If you don’t know, not all cats are comfortable around humans (We call those socialized cats). A lot of them are, but there are also a good amount of them that aren’t. They’re shy, fearful, or aggressive. If you get close to one of those, they may back away, hide, or in more extreme cases, hiss, attempt to scratch or bite (We call those unsocialized cats).
Since the goal is to get every single cat adopted, we have to train those cats to be more comfortable around people, which leads to a greater possibility of them getting adopted.
The process is pretty simple.
Talk to the cats, pet them, play with them, and give them cat treats.
And yes, you give them cat treats every single time you start an interaction. The reason for doing so is to give them positive interactions around people, to the point where they hopefully think,
“Oh, I see a person. Every time a person came to me, I got food. This person must be good. I’m not going to attack.”
Or something along those lines.
And the key is to be patient with them, be consistent with the interactions, and not rush the process. Unless you want to get scratched or bit, you stay within their comfort level.
Not-so-coincidentally, that’s also how you should approach emailing your list too.
Any new subscriber will have their guard up when entering your email list. They don’t know what to expect, they don’t know if you’re the real deal or just a charlatan.
But after every email interaction, that guard slowly goes down, and eventually, they’ll be more comfortable around you.
Of course, your emails do have to be good, and there are many factors that go into that.
But the point is, treat your subscribers as unsocialized cats.
Does that sound wrong? I don’t know, but hopefully you get the point.
Wrapping up now.
If you want to learn more about email writing, go to the link below: