So a few years ago I started a YouTube channel dedicated to helping senior citizens learn how to use their iPhone and iPad. I did this at the behest of my 90 yr old mother. My siblings and I bought her an iPad and she was struggling to use it. She’s in Ohio and I’m in NC so I made a video containing a few tips, posted it on Youtube and from there things took off. It’s grown quite a bit (approaching 150k subs with millions of views). Last week I thought about all the dedicated people at Apple who build these great products and decided to send an email to Tim Cook thanking him and everyone at Apple for their great work. I shared my story with him and within 30 minutes received an email from him thanking me for writing. The email contained no official signature. He just signed it “Tim.” Is this for real? Does he actually answer email from strangers?
Yeah, you got an email from Tim. It sounds utterly plausible. He says he does, and if the timing was right, I imagine his staff filter some special emails through to him.
I’ve got an ex client who is worth many billions and he checks his emails, shares his phone number, and answers his own linkedin messages (but only when he wants to). Most extraordinary people are ordinary people at heart - I like to think!
That’s something that Jobs did, and one can trust that Tim is following that tradition. But of course the amount of filtering on his public email address must be huge to the point that he must be using another account for work. But the important thing is that probably the message got to him, and he answered.
I have sent an email to him, and gotten a reply from an “Apple executive relations team”.
I would guess that email to him gets pre-filtered by somebody on staff and/or a bunch of automated rules, routed to other areas as appropriate, and then he gets anything that the staff decides to pass on.
I’m not too old yet but I watch your videos (I’m pretty sure I know who you are) and they really are applicable to anyone. Your presentation is top notch.
I just went looking for (and found) the channel, and now I’ll have to explore. Your channel looks like it could be very helpful for my parents.
Craig Federeghi replied to me a few years ago (this is 100% definitely why we got Continuity, so you’re welcome).
I’d say you heard from Tim!
Would you mind sharing that YouTube channel, Rich? I have some elderly friends who might find it very useful.
Sure. Just search for Rich Bowlin.