Born For This

When growing up, I spent many summers visiting my grandparents. They lived in a close-knit small town in New Jersey. And we would often walk to visit their many siblings.

I loved these visits. We are always warmly welcomed. I was often smothered with hugs. My cheeks were pinched. And we were always fed.

“You’re getting so tall.” “You need to eat more.” “You’re so beautiful.” “You look just like your mother.”

I was 18 when my grandfather died. I cried for months.

But that next year I studied abroad in Mexico. The warmness of my new friends in Mexico reminded me of the warmness of my family in New Jersey. This lead to me making fast friends with strangers in the oddest places.

Fast forward to today. The words “You were born for this” keep sounding in my head.

This is because recently I’ve been on a mission to build stronger human connection throughout my business and my life.

In a recent blog post, Networking Sucks, Do This Instead, I described how I find strangers on LinkedIn and warm them up to have networking phone calls with me.

I also use this process to make connections with Facebook groups. And I’ve modified this process to regularly keep in touch with 150 family and friends that I want to keep close.