Who Do You Need to Meet?

The topic of this blog was prompted by a marketing email I received a few months ago. The subject line was: “who do you need to meet?” The email was short and sweet, and all business. And it’s desired audience was small business owners who were looking for new connections to clients, partners, or for fun.

I am not a small business owner, but I get a lot of emails like this. Have I ever talked about that course bundle I bought…?! (perhaps that deserves its own post!) Many of these emails are far beyond my needs (or wants), but I do get some ideas for my community building events, how to improve my communication, and how to grow and expand my life in the direction of my values.

This one email kind of hit on all of that.

But, it oozed individualism as well. How do I build a network to benefit meeeeee?! (And help me make more money). No thanks.

So I am here today to turn this concept on its head a bit. Nothing that hasn’t been said or done before, but with a Lisa-vibe.

• Who do you need to meet to help build a network of mutual care?
• Who do you need to meet to enhance the well-being of your community?
• Who do you need to meet to share our skills and knowledge to improve everyone’s wellbeing?
• Who do you need to meet to help you do this even though it is really hard, and we’re all out of practice?

I have been an active commuter on the struggle bus to make connections, maintain friendships, and meet new people forrrevvvver. I have very clear memories of my thoughts in early university about this exact problem. Y’all that was 25 years ago.

Yikes!

Thankfully, all of my personal growth work is finally fruiting, and the weak connections I have made over the past few years are becoming stronger. And are generating new connections!

Wow!

(I don’t know what your specific takeaway from this post will be, but maybe it’s simply that every little step counts and moves you forward to your end goal even if it takes a big longer than you anticipated – or wanted.)

And while it’s all fine to get stuck in thoughts and planning (aka get philosophical) about this topic, I am completely more interested in the following questions:

• HOW do you meet people?
• HOW do you meet those people you need to meet?
• HOW do you share skills and knowledge and improve the well-being of your community thanks to all these new connections that you are making??

Y’all.

We need to get out there in the world! (Ugh) Get vulnerable! (blargh) Practice our imperfect methods. Remembering that a lot of people struggle with this, perhaps (and especially) the people you think are the pros.

Not Ladylike Community is one (imperfect) answer in a sea of organizations, clubs, and groups designed to get you meeting one another and building those vital connections.

My labour is for me and for you. This Not Ladylike Community project–and whatever it might look like in the future–is for all of us. To figure this out with compassion, mindfulness, and hard work. I am about to get LASER FOCUSED on what I want the next year to look like over here, and all of these questions will absolutely guide that plan.

One really great takeaway from that original email is a “people I’ve met” spreadsheet. I think this could be a gamechanger for me. And maybe you too?