First Contact

Years ago, there was a restaurant my friends and I loved to go to at least once a week. 🍽️ It was easy to get to, we knew the phone number by heart ☎️, and the hours never changed. ⏰

Then it moved.

❌ NO SOUP FOR YOU

The new location was really hard to get to and no longer took phone calls. Their new space was bigger, so they started renting it out to host events a couple of nights a week. 🎉 On those nights, it was closed to regular customers. As much as my friends and I wanted to connect with the new location, it was hard. So, we started meeting for dinner at other places instead. 🍔🍕🍣

And we must have been in good company because the once-thriving restaurant we loved so much went out of business six months later. 💔

FIRST CONTACT

Sometimes people ask me for coaching on how to better connect with others. They describe how nobody ever calls 📞, nobody ever emails 📧, nobody ever texts 📱, nobody ever visits 🚶‍♂️.

When I hear that, I'll often ask, "How is your connectivity?"

They'll ask, "You mean like my cell service, or my internet?" 🌐

I say, "No, your connectivity. How many connection points do you have?"

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

If you've ever studied cellular biology 🔬, you'll remember learning that different types of living cells have different receptors on their cellular membrane. Different enzymes bonding to those receptor sites make different cells do different things. 🧬 All cells have receptors because without them, they'd be really isolated and couldn't do much.

Just like cells need contact points to communicate and create relationships with other cells, people need contact points to communicate and create relationships with other people. 🤝

Some of those contact points might be...

📞 Sharing your phone number

🏡 Sharing your address

🌐 Connecting with others online

🎟️ Attending events in person

🍽️ Inviting others to go out

💼 Letting people know you're looking for a job

🤝 Letting people know you're looking for a friend

💖 Letting people know you're looking for love

🙋‍♀️ Volunteering to help others

📚 Signing up to learn something with others

❓Just expressing curiosity about how others are doing. 

Connection points. If you want more opportunities to communicate and build relationships with others, you're going to want to have lots of connection points out there. Because the alternative can be really isolating. 🏝️

If you're wanting some alone time, no problem—no more connection points needed for you. However, if you're feeling lonely 🥺, make sure your connection points are up and running, bright and loud.

Glad to be connected with YOU, Eric 😊