Proximity is not awareness.

It is not familiarity.

It is not being known.

Proximity forms when someone has relied on your judgement before they needed you.

It emerges when your thinking helps others make sense of work that already matters to them.

When it reduces uncertainty rather than advancing opinion.

When it clarifies meaning instead of proposing action.

This work does not announce itself.

It does not request permission.

It moves quietly, hand to hand.

It may look like a careful interpretation of something an organisation has already committed to.

Not praise.

Not critique.

An explanation of what it signals, what it assumes, and what it quietly changes.

Nothing is sold.

Nothing is asked for.

Trust does not respond to pressure.

It accumulates through restraint.

This kind of work offers no fast proof.

No metrics.

No applause.

Most people will not do it.

That is why it works.

If selling is still required, you are already late.

Proximity does not help you win more pitches.

It removes the need to compete in them.

And this is the uncomfortable truth:

By the time persuasion begins, relevance has already been decided.

If proximity is not forming, no amount of selling will recover it.

This is not a tactic.

It is not a growth hack.

It cannot be rushed.

But it names what stands between capable consultants and real engagement.

And it explains why so much effort produces so little trust.

The choice is simple, and not easy.

You can continue performing for decisions already made.

Or you can do the quieter work, earlier, without guarantee anyone will notice.

Until they do.