Walk & Talk
April 21, 2015A few weeks ago, my friend, Dana, asked if I wanted to get together for coffee. It’s always a treat to see her – our conversations run a wide range of topics from family to education to careers to training to leadership to you name it! So, of course, I gave an enthusiastic, “YES!” When I asked where she’d like to meet, she said, “How about getting together for a long walk instead of going to a coffee shop?” What an excellent idea!
And, so, in a perfect blend of all worlds, we met at a neighborhood coffee shop to park our cars and immediately departed for a 45 minute walk. It was invigorating! Then, in the 15 minutes we had left before we needed to scuttle off to our next commitments, we grabbed drinks at the coffee shop, found a table to wrap up our visit and off we went.
As ever, our conversation ran a wide range of topics! This time, we discussed vacations and children and professional projects. In fact, we ran out of time to get in all of the things we wanted to review. And, we each packed in about 6,000 of the recommended 10,000 daily steps! It was truly wonderful.
And, so, the moral of the story, of course, is get active! Why limit networking interactions to visiting in a café, a favorite lunch spot, a corporate office or a board room when you can take a walk around the block or around the track at the gym?
I’m not the only one talking about this type of interaction… in fact, it seems to be all the rage! In Colorado, I met a therapist whose specialty is “walk and talk counseling” – that is counseling sessions conducted while walking outdoors that she believes “hold powerful potential for healing.” Similarly, just this week, my buddy, Mic Johnson, with Blue Gurus, posted about his own experience connecting with people while on a quest to hit his own 10,000 steps. Though I’m not quite ready to rename my “Coffee Lunch Coffee” philosophy to “Walk Talk Walk,” I’m loving this concept and am just sorry it took me so long to don the sneakers and get out there.
Hoping to Connect with more of you on the walking trails of our community – looking forward to seeing you out there. Let’s Walk & Talk!