Fax Machine & Contempt

𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆, 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗮𝘅 𝗽𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘀𝗺𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟵𝟬𝘀.

There it was...face-down on the copier room floor...looking like a piece of trash.

But this wasn’t trash. It was a $50,000 purchase order!
Just lying there. Forgotten. Like a MySpace password.

We had just started Vortex. Our "conference room" was the copier room. Our sales? Zero.
We shared space with our sister company, Eagle Optics, a scrappy birding retailer that sold every brand under the sun. It paid the bills and gave us a front-row seat to what the market loved...and what it hated.
That fax machine? It took every order. Vortex. Eagle. All of it.

So when I saw that $50,000 order on the floor, I did what any rookie would do…I grabbed it like it was gold.

I brought it to the buyers at Eagle Optics. "Hey, uh...this seems like a big deal?"

They shrugged. “Oh yeah, that’s the third or fourth time we’ve sent that in. They never respond. Never call back. Pretty standard. Honestly, we think they kinda hate all their retailers.”

That’s when I knew. It was only a matter of time before we passed them by.

I didn’t know the name for what was happening at the time, but it was contempt.
And that crack of contempt? It was the opening Vortex needed to break through.

Because we weren’t going to be that brand.
We weren’t going to ignore customers.
We weren’t going to ghost loyal retailers.
We weren’t going to let $50,000 faxes hit the floor without a hell yeah and a thank you!

That experience didn’t just light a fire. It revealed a pattern.
Too many brands treat customers like a necessary nuisance.
The emails become noise. The calls an inconvenience.
But here’s the truth. Those customers? They keep the lights on. They champion your brand.
And when they feel invisible, long enough…they walk.
Not with a bang. But with a slow, silent fade.

Years later, I read a book by marriage experts, the Gottmans. They talk about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that kill relationships: Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling, and Contempt. Know what the worst one is?

Contempt.

Not just in marriage. In business. In life.

Contempt is quiet. Subtle. It shows up as “They’ll be fine, they aren’t going anywhere.” Or “Them again…what now!?!”🙄
It sneaks in when we stop saying thank you.
It’s what happens when we take someone for granted.
Employees. Customers. Spouses. Anyone.

You don’t lose people all at once. You lose them one ignored moment at a time.

𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿:
Answer the call. Respond to the fax.
Say “Thank you”, again and again, and mean it.

And the people who feel seen, heard, and valued?
They stick around.

CARE: Creating a Rare Experience isn’t just a nice idea...

It’s the difference between something that lasts and something that gets left on the copier room floor.