Children's Business Review

Want To Click With Someone? It’s As Easy As Mirroring and Matching

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Despite the chill in the air, it was, perhaps, the most beautiful night of the year. As the first snowfall of the season began to blanket the forest, it did so under the watchful eyes of the moon, Clara and Aris.

The two friends, who had seldom felt more cozy, watched the snow fall in silence for a rather long time until Clara finally spoke.

“How can I make someone like me?” she asked Aris.. 

Aris considered his response before answering. 

“I can teach you many ways to gain someone’s favour,” he replied. “But you’ll need to be careful. Once people start doubting your motives, and think that your intentions are not honest, it can be hard to regain their trust.”

As Clara turned towards Aris and smiled, all doubts he had towards her motivation in learning how to influence others vanished.  

 “Alright Clara,” Aris began. “It’s impossible to make someone like you but there are some very easy ways to make a good impression and begin building good-will with others. Let me tell you about a little monkey I’ve heard of who was always very popular…”

******

If someone set out to list the number of wonders and peculiarities present in a Central American forest, they had better prepare themself for what they would soon discover is a monumental undertaking. 

The various species of toucan found there would most certainly make any list of remarkable birds. Take for example the tiny emerald toucanet, with its oversized black and yellow bill, emerald green chest and its distinctive white or dark blue throat. There’s also the more familiar keel-billed toucan that would surely draw one’s attention, with its dizzying patterned bill of  red, green, blue and orange, it’s compact black body, yellow chest and its bright blue feet. 

The Ocelot, a small wildcat that looks like a cross between a leopard and a common house-cat, is another interesting find. One creature that would confuse any spectator is the reddish-brown Coati, with its pig-like nose, webbed feet, racoon-like tail and monkey’s temperament. 

The dragon-like green iguana, ever serious and deadly looking, is a wonder indeed. And on the smaller side of things, the tiny strawberry poison dart frog would be a welcome addition to the list because of its plump, brilliant red body and its spindly bright blue legs.  Finally, of course, the three-toed sloth would have to be included on the list of peculiar creatures in light of its long and coarse grey-brown fur, its stumpy body, elongated limbs, comically long claws, dreamy eyes and its ever-pleasant expression. 

While these  peculiarities of the Central American forest are vastly different in many ways, the one thing that all of these animals, along with almost every other creature you might find slithering, climbing, flying, darting, hopping or crawling its way through the forest had in common, was their love of Bethany’s Bodega.

The namesake of Bethany’s Bodega was a tiny white-headed capuchin monkey. Like all other monkeys of this type, Bethany had a long tail, pinkish face and black fur covering her entire body except for a yellowy-white covering of fur over her shoulders, upper arms, neck and chest. In her youth, Bethany lived in a troop of about 40 other monkeys and would travel daily with them in search of food and a place to lay their heads at night. As she grew older, and it became more difficult for her to keep-up with the younger monkeys swinging from branch-to-branch, Bethany decided to leave the troop and settle down. Never one for idleness, Bethany built a small treehouse and began selling and trading fruit with the various troops of monkeys that would pass by. As the years passed, Bethany’s Bodega grew and became a permanent fixture in the forest.

It wasn’t that Bethany’ tree-house Bodega was unique, in fact other monkeys, including other white-headed capuchin monkeys, had their own Bodegas in competition with Bethany. Nor was Bethany’s store different in terms of its merchandise. Upon entering the treehouse door, a set of shelves on the left was stacked with  stones of various shapes and sizes, fit for whoever was their user and each a perfect tool to use in order to crack open hard fruits. Next to these shelves, and moving towards the back of the Bodega, was a vast collection of both insects and worms, some still alive and squirming. Across from this side of the store were stacks upon stacks of fruit of every type, from the ripe and newly picked to the thoroughly rotten. 

Above all of this was a series of shelves, near to the ceiling but easily accessible to any monkey. These shelves housed numerous nuts, seeds and seedlings, all jumbled together in some order that no one besides Bethany was able to decipher. Stacks of young leaves and freshly picked flowers took up much of the centre area of the treehouse resulting in quite a narrow pathway.

This pathway led Bethany’s customers to the counter where Bethany served her customers and would typically be found. It overflowed with stacks and stacks of fruit shells which held inside them a special mix of insect larvae, frequently an impulse purchase for the Bodega’s customers. 

It was speculated that the popularity of Bethany’s Bodega was due to the fact that upon entering the store, every creature felt immediately welcome. And then, when they finally left the Bodega, they departed feeling completely relaxed. Some would comment on the atmosphere Bethany had created in the Bodega while others credited Bethany herself for drawing them back, time after time. 

There was, in fact, a real secret behind Bethany’s success, one that I’m sharing with you now. Rather than having one approach to dealing with her customers, Bethany had the rare ability to adapt-to and, if needed, shift her customer’s mood. And so, after learning her secret, if you were to watch Bethany at work, you would easily observe and understand how she managed to create such an inviting atmosphere in the Bodega. Here’s some of what you might see. 

Bethany was never more a monkey than when other monkeys came to visit her Bodega. When the large and slow-moving Howler monkeys would come looking for leaves, fruit, flowers and nuts, Bethany would puff herself up in size, move at a languid pace and let out a guttural howl in response to her customers’ common vocalizations. When smaller and more light-footed monkeys, like herself, would come to call, Bethany would jump and swing from shelf to shelf and she, along with her monkey clients, would fill the Bodega with laughter and chatter. 

When the small and rather unsociable strawberry poison dart frogs came looking for ants, termites or flies to bring home to their families, Bethany would take on a diminutive air and largely leave them to their own devices. When taking, and repeating their order, a bystander might rightly say that Bethany’s voice took on a croaking cadence. 

Among Bethany’s favourite clients were the always amiable sloths. It was not unusual for these good-natured creatures to, on occasion, fall asleep while placing an order only to awaken and find that Bethany had also dozed off. Grateful that they needn’t be embarrassed, the sloths would complete their order and be on their way, with no great haste of course.

When a disagreeable client would enter the Bodega, such as Janice, an ancient and completely cantankerous iguana, Bethany was ready with an always infectious smile and an ear ready to listen to any complaint. It was usual for Janice, and other ill-natured iguanas, to leave with not only a sampling of the Bodega’s plants, herbs and flowers but also a smile on their tight faces, which, true to their nature, quickly vanished.  

If a band of noisy, social and inquisitive coatis came looking to get some of the Bodega’s fruits, nuts, insects and seeds, Bethany would join them in climbing about the Bodega and rummaging around every possible corner. Bethany did, no doubt, already know where most things were stored and this indulgence was, without doubt, for the coatis’ benefit. Despite the fact that the Bodega had little to offer the silent and private ocelots, on the rare occasion where one of them wanted to socialize, they would, more often-than-not, be found at Bethany’s Bodega. 

When visiting the Bodega, the highly-intelligent emerald toucanets and keel-billed toucans delighted in the mind-games and puzzles Bethany would pose to them and were particularly fond of the complicated knots she would tie when wrapping their seed and fruit packages. After all, their food never tasted as good as when they had to work diligently at getting into it. 

As the years passed and Bethany was no longer the spry little monkey that she once was, Bentley, her niece, started working with her and eventually took over the Bodega. Under the watchful eye of Bethany, Bentley learned and incorporated Bethany’s secrets in her own dealings with the Bodega’s clients and was, not surprisingly, a very successful monkey indeed. 

******

“You and I are lucky!” Clara remarked to Aris as he concluded his story. 

“And why is that?” Aris asked his friend with some curiosity.

Clara explained. “In your story, the animals liked Bethany because she behaved like them.”

“That’s right,” Aris replied.

“And I’ve seen around this forest that there are some animals here who only like those animals who are like them,” Clara said sadly, and then turned and smiled at Aris, “But luckily you and I are not like that, because if we were, we would never have become friends.”

With smiles on their faces, the two nestled in close together and continued to watch the snow fall.