Imagine you navigate to my blog only to find the following message:

Thank you for visiting. I am currently out of the office but will return in five days. While I know you were hoping to be entertained, or at least amused right now? It will have to wait until I am back.

How many of you would be back? (Thanks Ali) But most of you would take that sh*t personally. Guess what? That’s exactly what happens when your Client gets an unexpected O3 from you. (For those of you unfamiliar, an “O3” is an Out Of Office message.)

In Swimming with Sharks (one of my favorite movies), Kevin Spacey’s character (Buddy Ackerman),is epically incensed by his assistant’s matter of fact acceptance that Spacey’s boss is “unreachable.”

Guy: She’s white-water rafting.

Buddy: I don’t see the problem?

Guy: Well, I don’t imagine they have phones on the river.

Buddy: They have helicopters, don’t they?

It only gets worse for Guy after that.

The point is, Out of Office messages infer that you are “unreachable.” (I had to Google to make sure I spelled that word correctly.)

As a Producer, I don’t understand the meaning of “unreachable.” You know what? Check that. As an Account Exec; as a Strategist; even as an Adjunct Professor, I have never been unreachable. Just ask any student who has emailed me at midnight on a Sunday.

I have analyzed this in myself, and realize it comes down to the basic human instinct of wanting to win.  If I miss an email, the Client wins. And honestly, I don’t want them to win.

So here’s what. 

If you want to be a Producer (which, as you all know, is my version of a Superstar Account Leader). Then you have to remove “unreachable” from your lexicon.

You need to check email even when you are out of the office and on weekends.

If it helps, make it a game. See if the Client realizes that you are enjoying drinks on the beach on Turks and Caicos (been there) instead of toiling at your desk.  Make it a game that YOU win by not giving them the last word. Make it a game by controlling the flow of information between you and your Client.  But ultimately (like WordsWithFriends), make your Client believe that the game is always in motion.

   And…fade to black.