Who do you know?

You never know who you will meet through who you meet.  That is what my mother told me as I was getting ready for my first blind date many years ago and it stuck with me.  Not only for blind dates, for every day life.

There are so many people in my world today, some I have known all of my life, some since childhood and some only a short time.  I have friends all over the world, although, I have yet to travel all over the world and some people, I have never actually met in person.

Every minute of every day is a possibility for connection and you never actually know who you will meet or what role they will play in your life.  About a year ago, I opened my social media account to the public as a business strategy and started requesting friends with people who interested me, people who seemed to be the same energy of me and what it was I desired to create.  You know, that strategy of surrounding yourself with like minds to create more.  It totally works.

and….

It’s been more than I could have imagined.

That is not the only arena, through everything I experience, I have the curiosity and allowance for whatever is possible to show up and the most brilliant people and situations come into my world.  I’ve had that curiosity since I was a kid and that one phrase my mother said to me opened up a door to invite that in with people.

One of my favorite stories is from more than a decade ago.

I was shopping at the local market and saw a woman who looked familiar to me.  I didn’t know how or why, and the thought came to me, we will be great friends someday.  About six months later without thinking about that moment,  I am checking out at that market with my boyfriend.  She was our cashier and he was trying to be funny while making jokes that clearly offended her and embarrassed me.  I quickly nudged him out the door.  A couple of hours later, while joining some friends for a Thanksgiving dinner, one of our friends walk through the door bringing a date whom he’d just met.  It was her.  By the end of the night we were friends and within a week, roommates and over the next two years, we shared amazing times; living together, raising kids together, working out together and supporting each other for the next phase of life.

It fascinates me to this day, how serendipitous life can be and if we are paying even the slightest amount of attention, we can see how truly small the world is, especially with the internet. This brings me to another story that started about a year ago.

After opening my social media account to the public and friending many “likeminded” people, I saw someone who was hosting an online group for business entrepreneurs.   I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that step up in my business and I was curious, so I signed up.  I mean, it was called Momentum, and that in itself, excited me.  

The first three months focused on programs and tools for creating business online.  This opened the door to a capacity inside of me that I truly didn’t know I had till I started this group.  I’ve always had an interest in technology and how systems work, I’ve been a researcher my whole life, if I don’t know how to do something, I figure it out. I’ve managed businesses, done administrative work and easily find my way through the traditional computer programs.  What this group introduced me to were some of the programs used to manage, market and brand online business, what it takes to create, host and manage webinars, email, and customers and the promotion of events and products with graphic design, recording, editing, sharing, uploading and storing of digital content.   About the time I was opening up to see my capacity within this new playground, the woman leading this group sent me a personal message. She asked if I’d like to join her promotion team.

Heck yeah…

Right in the beginning of joining this team, she asked if anyone knew how to do audio clips.  I didn’t have a clue, and I was curious so I spoke up and said yes.  She gave me the job, I took it and within 30 minutes I figured out how to do it, did it and got it back to her.  This was just the beginning and added another section to my resume with capacities in online business, for myself and clients.  

I’d like to add another point to this story.  I met and became part of this woman’s team before ever meeting her in person and when we did actually meet, it was brief, and our relationship has grown immensely over the last six months and all of it online through technology.  I add this to extend the idea that, meeting can include forms beyond what we have always defined, creating relationships can come from anyplace today.  

Have you expanded your circles, your reach, your world beyond where you live and visit and what could you add to you life if you did?

I have many, many, more stories like these and everyday, new ones are being created.  I pay attention to my social media feed and the fun of meeting people, finding out that they know someone I know and sometimes, that is in a totally different area of the world.

Isn’t the premise of social media to meet people through who you know? Today we have the possibility of a job connection or linking our business with social media (linkedin) to finding love through common people on dating sites (Tinder) and our friends don’t even have to know?

and…

What about the people you meet, through the people you know, as you are out and about with them and the times that you hear of someone who is looking to buy a home and you connect them to your friend, who has a sister, that is selling her house.  That is what I am talking about.

I’d like to take it a step further.

Randomly, posts on Facebook will say things like, get offline and live your life or you aren’t really social with social media. Maybe, social media is actually social and an addition to you life? Maybe, this is just what it looks like in my world. I am an outdoor person by nature.  I can also spend quite a long time on my computer.  It seems to balance out for me and sometimes my social life online is richer than my social life in person.  With technology it’s possible to connect with people all over the world, find inspiration and be touched in ways that you only thought possible face to face.

I just recently started sharing random posts from my Facebook feed.  I am incredibly lucky and blessed to have so many amazing, beautiful people in my life.  They come from places I have been and places I’d like to visit.  They are friends from childhood to those I haven’t met in person.  They are people who work online and those sharing some of their daily lives.  ALL of them say something, at least once in awhile, that contributes to my life in some way.  I wonder, if that is happening in your social media feed as well?  I’m curious if you are allowing all the possible ways of connecting to enrich your life or have you decided something that limits that?

I am grateful for technology. For all of the obvious reasons, it’s part of what I do in business and it keeps my mind growing and fresh. I am grateful for the reason we might otherwise take for granted.  For the bridging of the world and bringing people I would otherwise not meet, into my living room, who light me up with their stories, smiles and vulnerability while being out there, online, for all the world to see.

Maybe this isn’t your view of social media, people and connecting with others

and I wonder…

What is possible if you filtered your Facebook feed to show only the posts that bring more to your life and you recognized when your friend invites you for coffee, that you never know who you will meet through who you meet.

Cheers! Michelle