What are the odds that you’ll meet and do business with the man now married to the woman who bought your former house seven years ago, and you never met her at the time? You could have knocked me over with a feather when I did exactly that this week. We’d spoken by phone prior to meeting and I’d shared a couple of strategies to grow his business. He was telling his wife about it and mentioned my name. She said, “gee, that’s funny I bought this house from a Melissa Galt.” Thankfully for the world, there is only ONE of me!
More Than Just a Disney Ride!The same day I met another man at a business event in Atlanta who had spent two years of his high school time at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Knowing how small Hawaii is and guessing he was close to my age, I asked if he knew my cousins, who had grown up in Honolulu and who had all attended Punahou. He did. What are the odds?
Today, more and more, the odds are shrinking. The world is becoming an increasingly smaller place and when you look for opportunities to connect, you are likely to find them almost everywhere. Your points of connection are what relationships are built on. In this Social Age, we are all looking for more ways to connect, more experiences, family, history, education, and interests in common.
When we share are commonalities and focus on them, relationships blossom. You will be infinitely more memorable and magnetic to your market when they find a connection to you and you never know what it will be. While you carry you with you into every encounter, all too often, you are forgetting to keep an eye and ear out for the points of connection.
I have a client, now friend, whose connection is that we are both from California. She was from Northern California, I was from Southern and if you know anything about that state that is kind of like coming from two different countries! LOL. It didn’t matter, it was my tipping point.
Another client discovered that she’d attended the same boarding school as my younger sister, ten years earlier. What are the odds? Now, whenever we are in touch, the first person she asks about is my sister, since my sister has a very colorful story including being a Roman Catholic nun in Vatican City in Rome for twelve years (and we weren’t raised Catholic, she converted.)
When you bring your points of connection into every conversation, you will find it simpler to connect with people. You will become more memorable and more magnetic and able to build more meaningful and relevant relationships. Now, I’m not suggesting that when someone says they are from Boston, you ask if they know your brother Steve who also lives there, unless they are at least in the same suburb (still a long shot) or attended the same school, or their kids do. I am recommending that you listen closely and strategically connect the dots for people you meet by mentioning relevant points of connection from your history, your work, your family, your education, your travels, and your interests.
In today’s Social Age, success hinges on you building relationships of relevance and meaning faster than before and establishing your know, like, and trust factor or as I like to call it, your KLT Factor. You are a fascinating person with a rich history even if you don’t think so or you discount that by saying you’ve lived in the same place your whole life. Get over your humility and get on with your greatness.
I’d love your COMMENTS BELOW on the people you’ve met through unexpected points of connection. WHAT ARE YOUR ODDS?
