I flew from the East Coast to Europe to speak at a big conference, and we got sales leads there. I was sitting there with my sales guy, and I didn't like something he was doing on the calls - I forget what exactly, but something didn't sit right with me.

I couldn't quite articulate what was going wrong, so I just I started dialing up a bunch of people myself. "Hi, this is Sebastian... yeah, me, I run things around here... anyway, how'd you like the talk? Oh cool. Anything I could've done better? No? Nothing? Come on now, don't mess with me dude. Oh, that is interesting, thank you. Anyways, I wonder if our company can make your life better. Where you at right now? Uh-huh... and how about this particular solution? Uh-huh... yeah mate, I got something good I reckon we could do for you."

People love hearing from the high-ups in a company. And you completely lose track of real life if you're not actively spending time in the trenches. That means doing any role you yourself can do periodically, and buying tea/Japanese food for engineers and technical people whose jobs you don't understand, while really testing their patience with your dumbass, Luddite questions. And constantly reminding them that you know you're a Luddite, but you really want to understand what the hell is going on in the trenches anyways.

Call people. They love it. You won't come across as desperate unless you actually are desperate, and even then, the desperation vibe will fall off if you call even more people.