While speaking at a conference earlier this year in Croatia, one of the other speakers introduced to me to the ancient Greeks’ two different concepts of time.

Chronos, according to the Greeks, is the quantitative, chronological time for which we use clocks. Kairos is qualitative time, like when a person or an idea’s time has come. 

“Chronos is about minutes and Kairos is about moments.”

This might be a helpful framework for how to think about lead generation.

Generating leads takes time. And effort. My inbox, like yours, is filled with people promising to compress the time and eliminate the effort. Scrape more leads, automate more content and outreach with less work, in less time.

Chronos time.

But what if, instead, you thought of outbound lead generation as qualitative? What if you quit trying to save minutes and instead focused on creating moments?

Kairos time.

That might look like one hand-crafted message a day, to one carefully chosen prospect. No templates, no automation, no scale. Instead, it’s thinking deeply about this person and how you might help. Then it’s a kind, thoughtful note where — if it does get read — the reader will recognize that you took the time.

At a time when everyone else is chasing shortcuts, how might such a note break through?

A client of mine, Manny, said it best. “Instead of thinking about lead generation as a campaign, we should think of it as a practice.” 

How might such a practice of lead generation — one thoughtful note a day — change your relationship with the task? Could you turn a selfish act into a generous one?

Perhaps you would let go of the need to even get a response.

An act done for the sake of the act. 

A ritual. A habit. A practice.

Of moments.

What might change for you?

-Blair