Meaningful Connections Part ii

Okay, everybody, I'm back. Part two, and it will go quick. Also, fun fact, I forgot to shut off my Do Not Disturb on the first one. So that's on me. I even have to click a button that says that I turned it off and I just glanced right past it. Anyway, I just wanted to finish out this conversation around meaningful Connections. So whether you are able to jump back in right away or you. You are listening on replay a little bit later, I wanted to come full circle. Hey, Luke, how's it going? This is part two.

Because I didn't do one step I needed to do. I thought I was in Do Not Disturb, and I was not. So we're back. Hi, Jules. Yeah, Be a good person. That's our Monday motive, motivation today. Thank you. It's my favorite hat, too. I like it a lot. I also wear it when I do sound baths. I don't know why I shouldn't always wear hats when I do them, but I like to. Hi, Brianna. Hi. Nice to see you. So here's the deal. This is part two of my conversation, and I wouldn't normally do this, but I made a mistake earlier and I got cut off in the middle of my live stream on the first one.

So if you're dialing into this one, this is part two. I'll give you a quick recap, but you can go to part one and replay it. And I promise to not take too much time. Time, however, Meaningful Connections is our conversation today, and it's one that I'm super, super passionate about. In the first part, I shared a story about how a meaningful connection has helped to get me where I am today. And we don't always know when we have a meaningful connection. So we meet people all the time. We meet people in our work, we meet people at an event.

We get introduced to somebody at another. And that first interaction with someone, it could be a deal breaker. It could be like, that person's not for me. Or it could be, I think I'll give them another chance. Or it could be, wow, I really want more of this person in my life. And over time, that connection can have a lifespan. It could maybe be for an instance or a period of time, and then maybe you evolve or they evolve or life happens. There could be the opportunity where that connection was really intense to start, and then it becomes gradual over time.

And that connection still always has a heartbeat. It just might not be as intense as what it was in the beginning. So the example I was sharing, and I'll do a really quick recap was a mentor of mine who when I worked at Best Buy, I was in finance. I was a simple, small first timer early in my career. Financial analyst? Yes. I'm a recovering finance professional. And at that time that person was a director. And we interacted during budget season and forecast season because I was the systems girl.

I'm really good with complex technologies. It's one of my strengths. I don't say that in a boastful way. It's just something that I'm really passionate about and I really like to do because I like solving complex problems. And during our time together at Best Buy, he kind of adopted me in as a mentee of his. And I didn't know what was happening. I just knew that he would always reach out to me on a quarterly basis or see me in the hallway and check in with me and would do little drive bys past my cubicle to see how I was doing.

And this was over years of time and about four years into our, four or five years into our mentee mentor relationship that was super informal. Again, I wouldn't have put the name on it. I just knew that he was a great person, super smart. And I really liked our conversations because I always walked away feeling inspired, encouraged and that I could offer something back. So it was really fun. On this particular day, he came past my desk or my cubicle. He would always flip my stuffed animals that I had lined up.

Yes, I was one of those people to toys all over the place. And he would flick them and they'd fall down on my computer and then this 6 foot 5 guy would duck like I didn't know it was him. And on this day I started crying when that happened. And he pulled me into a conference room and asked me what was going on. And I was having a really hard time with the new manager. We just didn't see eye to eye. And I knew that things would go south for me because I was a low person on the totem pole. And he started networking unbeknownst to to me to find a new role for me in the company because he knew how much of an asset I was.

I was part of a women's leadership group. I was doing really great work there. I had gotten published in a magazine for work that I had done. And he knew that I was a really valuable asset at Best Buy and he wanted to help. So he actually found me a new job, had a manager call me and say they had a position for me. I hadn't applied for anything. I interviewed with them and, and I ended up transitioning into a new job because this person saw a spark in me and kind of had taken me under their wing.

Fast forward a number of years later, I had left Best Buy, started my own company. I became a coach, an executive coach with different personality inventories. And I became a consultant because I knew that I'm really great at projects, I'm really strong, I feel really strong, and I feel successful when I am working on projects and starting new things and creating new things. So I became to understand my strengths a little bit more and leaned into them a little differently. But he fast forward several years later, he would call me as he would get promoted to a VP and eventually a CFO of a small company to help coach him on how to better lead his team or how to use technologies differently.

And so I became a pseudo mentor for him. And so that that meaningful connection started off at a really late night, working remotely, solving problems that couldn't be solved during the day because the technology was inaccessible that way. And it became a lifelong of mentor mentee relationships. So that's one example of a meaningful connection in my life. Now, maybe you've had meaningful connections in the past and maybe they have evolved or you've evolved or somehow they just went away. Meaningful connections are an investment.

So if I leave you with part two on meaningful connections and my reflections on the ones that I have in my life, and I would say I have a new series of meaningful connections in my life. I have Luke and Jules and Anna and Nikki and JC who over time I've known JC the longest of all of those names that I've mentioned. But all of them have become a part of me in my journey. And not only do I want to receive from them, but I want to give back to them. So a meaningful connection I find in my own space and in how I work with different mentors and clients.

And finding mentors is a meaningful connection has a spark. We might not always know what it's going to be, but it has some sort of spark there. There's a mutual give and receive. And what I mean by that is in, in my example with Paul, at first he, he gave a lot back to me, right? He was always looking out for me. But I also knew that he would call me when he had questions about these technologies or problems that he was trying to solve to get my ideas. And so I would always be able to give back to him.

So I had something to offer, he had something to offer in our mentee mentor relationship, that meaningful connection. So it's a give and receive. I also find that meaningful connections require an investment. They don't just continue to evolve over time. It requires an investment in time. The number of times that I would think of an article or book and randomly email people that had made an impact in my life and send them that book or that podcast or that article is significant. I probably once a month or at least once a quarter try to do that very thing.

Or as I'm listening to something in my head, I try to think, who else might this benefit? And I send it to them because those are meaningful connections that I want to invest in and I might not be able to see them every day. But it doesn't mean that that relationship has to go away. It just means that right now, it's not what either of us need in this moment. But we know that that connection doesn't need to go away. So it requires an investment. It also requires a little bit of vulnerability. So if you think about my example, I broke down crying in front of a director sitting at my desk as a financial analyst.

That's the most vulnerable I could possibly be. And here's what happens with me. And I know this really well. And I created a buffer around this. When I'm super emotional about something, I say the most random, stupid a** stuff ever. And I have to get it all out, every emotion out. But here's what's great. My mentor created a space where I felt comfortable to do that. And he modeled a way for me that I will live as a leader forever. I will always allow people on my team, people I coach, people I see on Cadre or in person.

I will always allow them to show up however they need to get it all out. And then when they're ready, not when I'm ready, when they're ready to listen to ideas or receive insights or whatever it is that they need in that moment, then I'll offer it up. Because that's what people have done for me and that's exactly what I needed. So I ask what people need. So meaningful connections can come in really weird packages at really random times that we don't expect. But my invitation to you is to pay attention, pay attention to the people that have come into your life in the last six months, last week.

Who are they? Is it something or someone that you want to invest in? Is it something or someone that has started investing in you already? And on the Part one version, there's an individual out there that said that they had lost their meaningful connections. That is gonna happen. Maybe you go through a life change, maybe you go through a divorce. So often people have worked at jobs for 20 years and all of their meaningful connections are in that one job that they had. And when that job goes away, then all those connections seem to go away as well.

So meaningful connections, they don't just land in our laps, it requires us to do something as well. But I'll tell you what, that is one of the best investments. So if you're missing out on some meaningful connections right now, reach out to me. If you are have meaningful connections, share about them what makes them meaningful. I'll post this in the comments as well. If you comment anything on part one or part two, I promise to come back in later. And listen, I apologize that I how to do a part two, but I'm also really grateful that I got some extra time on this one.

So I love you guys all and my invitation to you today is to take 10 minutes, maybe five. Look through your emails, look through your phone. Who are the people you call the most, text the most, email the most? Are they a meaningful connection? Is there someone on your favorites? You know when you can favorites people on your iPhone that you haven't connected with in a long time? You made them a favorite for a reason. Send them a note. Pop out to LinkedIn. Find that old boss or that person that made an impact.

Send them a note. Because those meaningful connections are there. They're just waiting for you to invest in them. Or there's a new one on its way. So I hope you all have the best day. Be a good person and just remember we're here for you. There are more beautiful people that are going to pop in today and have something to share.