Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to stay in touch. While social media
Speaker 1: makes it easy to believe we are still in contact
Speaker 1: with people from the past, more personal approaches are better
Speaker 1: for truly keeping a relationship strong. Modern communication is often strange.
Speaker 1: There are a few folks who I have met once
Speaker 1: or twice over the years, and I have followed them
Speaker 1: on social media as you do, and I feel like
Speaker 1: we have stayed in touch. But then when I bother
Speaker 1: to look back, I see it has been years since
Speaker 1: the last email we have sent to each other. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't fault them for not remembering who on earth I
Speaker 1: was if all I'm doing is liking their posts. But
Speaker 1: what's funny about that is that reading all of their
Speaker 1: posts and such took a reasonable amount of time. It's
Speaker 1: just that that time wasn't actually invested in building the relationship.
Speaker 1: Since it is easy to not stay in touch, it
Speaker 1: helps to be a bit more systematic about it. No,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be too systematic. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: folks in your life who unfailingly contact you. At the
Speaker 1: beginning of January, the beginning of April, the beginning of July,
Speaker 1: and so forth. What's happened is they have probably created
Speaker 1: a schedule to reach out to everyone they know every
Speaker 1: ninety days, and that happens to be when your date
Speaker 1: comes up. It is kind of funny. But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, I will say that you probably remember these
Speaker 1: people's names. That's more than we can say for most
Speaker 1: of us. To perhaps feel a bit more authentic about
Speaker 1: the process, it's best to just carve out some time
Speaker 1: every week or ideally each day to reach out to people.
Speaker 1: My friend Molly Beck wrote a book about doing just that.
Speaker 1: It's called reach Out, and each weekday she reaches out
Speaker 1: to one new person. Not all of these messages come
Speaker 1: to anything, but some do. I was the target of
Speaker 1: a reach out in and we have stayed in touch
Speaker 1: ever since. She was recently a guest on my other podcast,
Speaker 1: Best of Both Worlds. But it's not just about reaching
Speaker 1: out to new people. I think Molly would tell you
Speaker 1: that reaching out in order to stay in touch with
Speaker 1: existing contexts is one of the most efficient ways to
Speaker 1: do anything in this world. For instance, let's say you
Speaker 1: need to hire someone, especially if it's for the sort
Speaker 1: of job that people don't spend their whole lives doing.
Speaker 1: You probably have a wide pool of people you know
Speaker 1: who have worked with you in the past. If you
Speaker 1: have stayed in touch. That's how you can find someone
Speaker 1: you liked who might want to come back for a while.
Speaker 1: If you need to learn about a new topic or
Speaker 1: find a friend in a new town, the folks you've
Speaker 1: met in the past will be there to help out
Speaker 1: if you stay in touch. One way to stay in
Speaker 1: touch might be to use social media strategically. Follow people
Speaker 1: as you normally would, but whenever you see someone posts
Speaker 1: something interesting, write a personal note to them about it.
Speaker 1: It will stand out more than it would in a
Speaker 1: slew of comments and likes. Occasionally scroll through lists of
Speaker 1: people you follow. If you haven't heard from someone in
Speaker 1: a while, and especially if they haven't been posting much,
Speaker 1: reach out to see what they are up to. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it helps to have a reason to make this feel authentic,
Speaker 1: but I am sure you can come up with one
Speaker 1: if you need to. Hey, I just saw John from
Speaker 1: our dorm last week and it reminded me to say hello.
Speaker 1: Or I just went to Puerto Rico last month, and
Speaker 1: I remember that trip you took there when we were
Speaker 1: first working together. This is not rocket science. You can
Speaker 1: do this if it helps you stay accountable. You can
Speaker 1: set this as a daily task, as Molly recommends doing,
Speaker 1: or write down the names of folks you've reached out
Speaker 1: to in a notebook. Make sure that some of your
Speaker 1: messages aren't just responses. You are initiating outgoing ones too,
Speaker 1: and don't expect miracles overnight from just staying in touch.
Speaker 1: It helps to begin this discipline. When you don't actually
Speaker 1: need anything, you are just being sociable. You are just
Speaker 1: expressing interest in other people's lives. But when you do
Speaker 1: need something, you are not realizing that. Again, you haven't
Speaker 1: reached out to someone in six years, and by the way,
Speaker 1: they've closed that mailbox. Whoops. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that before
Speaker 1: breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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