People Call you and want to chat like they have known you for years

I have come up with quite a few strategies to handle this. In my business of entertainment and doing a national blog where I am often open and personal. People really do THINK they know you and they want to call and shoot the breeze about absolutely NOTHING. They talk to you like they have known you for years and figure they can be your friend. At times, it used to creep me out but then I realized the impact what I did had on others. While it may mean nothing to me, it may be very personal for others so I often call people back RIGHT before a meeting and I tell them I have a few minutes to talk and have to go to a meeting or I tell them I have a conference call to make, this is often a great strategy to get them to say what they called for and quite often, they get tongue-tied and don’t know what to say because they didn’t have anything to say in the first place. I have also learned to call people back and block my cell number if I’m on the go. It’s up to them if they don’t answer but I don’t know them and once people get your cell number, once again, they think they can call you whenever they want and have a conversation with you. I used to wonder why some execs that I know have 3 and 4 cell phones, now I know. One entrepreneur told me “This is the business phone, this is the family and friends phone and this is the bullshit phone which I almost never answer. He carried 3 cell phone everywhere with him. I am seriously contemplating getting another cell phone myself for the same reason. Business and personal calls should be on separate phones in order to keep you in one mode or the other. There is some validity to that.