I can only imagine what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a phone call that begins with, “Hi. My name is Rachele’ Davis, and I’m a licensed private investigator.”
Sometimes, the person on the other end thinks I’m full of crap. Other times, I’m automatically categorized as a prank caller or scam artist. Occasionally, I can’t get another sentence out before I’m shut down and hear a click in my ear. This was the case a few months ago.
My client had hired me to find her birth father. Sadly, during my investigation, I learned that her birth father was deceased. However, I did uncover a half sister who is alive and well.
When I called the half sister, within the first 15 seconds, she completely shut me down with, “I’m not at all, nor will I ever be, interested in whatever it is you have to say.” Then she hung up on me. She didn’t even know what I was about to say. Or did she?
Her reaction insinuated to me that she knew exactly why I was calling and was telling me she is not interested in having any communication whatsoever with her half sister. But I couldn’t be sure. I’m not in the business of pestering people or strong-arming them into a conversation they don’t want to have. But. There was a slim chance she didn’t know why I was calling, but she certainly wasn’t going to give me the time of day over the phone. It was time for a pivot.
I reported back to my client what had happened with the attempted phone call. I then asked my client to write a letter to her half sister. She wouldn’t respond to a call, but would she respond to a letter directly from her half sister?
My client wrote the letter, sent it to me, and I mailed it onto the half sister that ditched my call. And we waited.
Our persistence paid off. My client’s half sister called me and we had a very long and happy conversation. She had no idea that my client even existed. She had lost her father only a couple of years ago and had no other living family members on her father’s side of the family. She lived as an only child in this world until the day she received a letter from the half sister she never knew.
She would still be living as an only child in this world if I had thrown in the towel after my first failed phone call. It doesn’t take much. It simply takes not giving up.