A few weeks back, my husband and I traveled to Bodega Bay, CA for a quick overnight getaway. On our way to Bodega, we were excited to stop at this great little diner we were told about to start off our weekend trip just right with a great breakfast.

When we arrived at the diner, we both sat down at the counter. We had been driving for a bit, so we were ready for some good coffee.  Several minutes pass and who we believe to be our waitress, walks past us several times, making absolutely no eye contact.  She doesn’t welcome us or even acknowledge us (and no coffee was poured for us).  So after several minutes, as the waitress is speeding on by us and many others, I say “Excuse me, could we please have some coffee?” The waitress nods her head and serves each of us a cup of coffee.  No ‘Hello’  ‘How are you?’ or ‘How’s your day going?’ Just the coffee……  So after several more minutes, we were thinking that she should be bringing us menus.  Nope. Didn’t happen without us asking. At this point,  I started looking around like it was a joke that was being played.  She was doing similar behavior with the other guests.  As you can probably guess, it doesn’t get any better from here as we had to order food, etc.  I’ll fast forward to the check. Not only did we have to ask for the check, but when she slid the check in front of us, she tapped it twice and walked away. No verbal communication whatsoever.  My husband and I could believe it. Absolutely terrible guest service.  The food was excellent, but our service was so incredibly non-existent, we will definitely not be going there again.

That experience at the diner made me think about communication. What might appear to be small things are actually the big things in life!

So what is the #1 smartest thing you can do right now for great success in your professional and personal life?  CONNECT!  Connect with people in your personal life and connect with those in your professional life. If may seem like a small thing, but it is really a huge thing! What do I mean by connect? Listen. Talk with others and be interested in what they have to say. My experience in the diner is a shocking example of how bad someone can be in communicating, but sometimes it takes those type of examples to really look deep within ourselves to gauge where we are in our own behavior and look at how we can improve! So why is CONNECTING so important?  Here are my 5 main reasons.

5 Reasons Why CONNECTING Will Help You Really Succeed! 

  1. You Will Be Seen As A Genuine, Authentic Person – People want to be around and do business with those that don’t have an agenda. People like to do business with people who they like.
  2. When You Go The Extra Step, People Will Be More Loyal To You – Connecting with others is really not hard, but once you do so, most people will be very loyal to you when they feel you relate to them.
  3. Others Will Feel They Are Important – Even if you can’t fix something for someone, most of the time people are very happy with just being listened to and feeling like someone understands.
  4. People Want To Be Around Those They Can Trust – The more you connect with people, the more opportunity you give someone to get to know you and trust you. When people trust you, they’ll want to be around you.
  5. When You Give To Others, You Also Succeed – One of the greatest things in life you can do is lift someone else up emotionally. I believe that when you connect with others, you are giving. That positivity in the long term will come back to you.

When you really start connecting with people at home and in your career, you will definitely see a huge shift in the quality of your life.  How important do you feel it is to ‘really’ connect with others in your life? Do you have any great examples of how it has positively shifted you personally and/or professionally?  I would LOVE to hear from you!

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Cynthia Bazin is absolutely passionate about YOUR success and happiness. If you are ready and committed to change your life and take charge of your life, contact Cynthia today to start a conversation!     [email protected]   |   https://cynthiabazin.com

Cynthia is also City Director for a national magazine ‘Today’s Innovative Woman’! Check out her city page today!  http://todaysinnovativewoman.com/sacramento