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Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay, hosted by LuAnn Buechler, a seasoned leader with a master’s degree in Hospitality Administration and a recipient of the TLC Award for Leadership. This podcast is designed for business owners who have left toxic environments to create their own thriving workplaces but find themselves struggling with team building and mindset. Join LuAnn as she shares insights and strategies to help you cultivate joy and a positive mindset in your business and personal life. Drawing from her experience working with renowned leaders like Dr. Ivan Misner, LuAnn guides you in building a supportive community and mastering the art of people management. Each episode offers practical advice and inspiring stories to empower you to transform your work environment into one that reflects your values and passions. Tune in to discover how to lead with joy, foster meaningful connections, and truly make your passion pay.
Hey everybody. Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay podcast, where we talk about the six seasons in the playbook to make your passions pay, and those seas, as a reminder, are clarity, connection, community, collaboration, creativity, and commitment. And today it's very obvious what we're going to be talking about, and that is connection. And I'm really happy to introduce Talia to you today. After over a decade in tech leading teams, Talia decided to quit it and go against the grain with her next move. For the past year, she's been building Third Space Experiences, where she designs and facilitates connection experiences. All experiences are device free, so out of the tech world, no tech, and the purpose is to get to know each other beyond titles, roles, and the small talk that often feels like conversation. The end result is better connected and higher performing teams. Well, I love to talk about teams too, Talia. As you know, I did do a little research on your website as well, though, and it goes beyond just teams. I'm interested in hearing about all of it. First, tell us about your transition or your career in tech and why you transitioned out.
(00:03:41.636) Talia Rosenblum: Yes. So I was in tech for many years. As we said, I was mainly in the customer support organization, leading teams of, you know, I led a team of up to 50 people, had some smaller startup experience as well. And I really just started last year. So in March, I was part of a layoff, which, you know, unfortunately is normal at this point in
(00:04:09.236) LuAnn Buechler: tech.
(00:04:09.436) Talia Rosenblum: And I was just thinking, what do I want to do now? You know, I'm probably mid-career and started thinking about trying to do something maybe a little bit more purposeful, even though I felt a lot of purpose and connection with what I was doing. Just things change over time, so it started with the small idea of a device-free coffee shop, and I realized we've got coffee shops, love it. But what am I trying to accomplish here? And it was really the idea of creating spaces where we were connecting more naturally, where it was going beyond small talk, where we could have really good conversations, and getting off of the phones certainly helps to support that. So that's been my last year of just kind of figuring out what all of this is and creating different experiences and facilitating them and just enjoying seeing and watching and helping people connect better.
(00:05:08.136) LuAnn Buechler: Awesome. So what is Third Space Experiences?
(00:05:13.436) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, so it's all about creating, designing, and facilitating connection experiences. So if you don't know what third spaces are, there is this concept. So it was Ray Oldenburg who came up with the idea. First is our home. Our second space is our work. Typically, it's a little confusing now that the work-from-home stuff happens, but we still try and carve out space. But third spaces were kind of the other places where we were, so a town square or, you know, in the UK, pubs where the whole family would gather and just hang out and, you know, multi-generational, etc., piazzas in Italy, things like that. And really kind of notice that those types of spaces have been disappearing. It's a great book. I highly recommend it. And I thought, how do we create more of those spaces and places to do that? So that was kind of the background of the name and the idea behind it. Yes.
(00:06:15.736) LuAnn Buechler: So I get that. Now, the third space is that we hang out in. What was the book you mentioned?
(00:06:25.336) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, so The Great Good Place, and that's by Ray Oldenburg, and he wrote it, I think it was in 1989, and it's all about kind of the declining third spaces that we have. And it really starts with, you know, when after World War Two, people came back from war, started settling, we started to suburbanize. And as we did that, people got further and further away, and they were not as close anymore. So that's just a little—he talks about it much more, and it's great information, but my little teaser.
(00:07:05.536) LuAnn Buechler: Excellent. All right, and so, tell us what a connection experience is like.
(00:07:11.736) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, so I do connection experiences in the community, so it's ticketed, anyone can show up, and then I also do them for teams, as we talked about, or existing groups of any type. But what I primarily do is, there are three rounds of small group conversations. And so, small group means three to four people. And during the three rounds, you're actually talking with different people. So each round is about 20 minutes, depending on the specific experience. The first round, you know, everyone has their own prompts and cards, and I actually have one here, so I thought I would just share one of the questions. So one of them is, what's something you collect without meaning to? And then there are some questions I like to call digging deeper questions, and it just helps you, you know, not give one-word answers because that's the point. So, when did you notice you were collecting it? Do you actively look for more now? What's your favorite piece? Do others know about your collection? So it's just this random thing that it's like, we all probably collect things and maybe don't even realize it until we think about this question. And then it's not talking about our work or any of these things, but I get to know you better based on the answer.
(00:08:30.536) LuAnn Buechler: Well, but
(00:08:31.336) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, yeah. So the second and the third rounds are very similar, but there's a group conversation topic. The second round tends to be a little bit more focused around connection and presence, and sometimes some of the questions bring in the kind of device-free aspect of things or how devices have affected us in our communication. And then the third round is the most self-reflective. But I always tell people it's not scary, it's not asking for secrets or anything like that, but the idea is that you're kind of primed by then to be able to talk about things that we might not usually talk about. So people go through, and typically I try and do these for groups of 25. I've also done it at conferences for over 150 women, and it's all about just having all of these good conversations. So that's the flow, and typically there's extra time afterwards to continue the conversation. One thing that I feel very lucky to experience is oftentimes it's hard to get people to leave wherever we are because they're continuing on with the conversation. So, very rewarding.
(00:09:47.136) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, I love that so much. I was just gonna say that I was recently at an event and I'm like, no one's leaving, like no one wants to go. We all want to stay together. Yeah,
(00:09:58.836) Talia Rosenblum: Exactly, exactly. You all are keeping it.
(00:10:03.536) LuAnn Buechler: So you work with business owners?
(00:10:04.936) Talia Rosenblum: Yes, so business owners, human resources, organization leaders and general. That can kind of make these decisions and bring folks in. It works kind of great with individual teams but also at an organizational level, you know, really creating that psychological safety within a team and that just makes teams work. Better engagement goes up typically by like 17% when you have psychological safety present. So really try and focus on that and help obviously deliver in
(00:10:41.536) LuAnn Buechler: the word logical safety.
(00:10:43.836) Talia Rosenblum: Yes,
(00:10:44.736) LuAnn Buechler: I love that word. I have an emotional sense of that word, explain more.
(00:10:52.736) Talia Rosenblum: Yes. So I'm not going to give you the definition definition. I'm sure there's one out there but
(00:10:58.536) LuAnn Buechler: more
(00:10:58.936) Talia Rosenblum: Kind of how I feel about it. So when you have psychological safety within a team or an organization, you as an individual feel as though you can say what needs to be said without retaliation, retribution, or feeling silly, whatever the terminology might be. And so, because you have that safety, you're willing to speak up. Obviously, that creates more voices within the organization and adds that diversity of thought that you have, and you really want that. So you can imagine if there's not psychological safety, there might be red flags going off in your head, but you're like, I'm staying in my lane.
(00:11:43.436) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah.
(00:11:43.936) Talia Rosenblum: Say that.
(00:11:44.636) LuAnn Buechler: So it's hitting home for me because I'm currently working with a small organization, a company of about 25, and as you know, my work is in the Passion Test. So I took all these employees in small groups through the Passion Test process, and when they had to share with each other, I hit this wall. I hit this wall of psychological safety, and they did not feel that.
(00:12:17.036) Talia Rosenblum: Mmm,
(00:12:18.336) LuAnn Buechler: You have recreated core values for the company. Well, not recreated, they never had any,
(00:12:24.136) Talia Rosenblum: right?
(00:12:24.636) LuAnn Buechler: That's the foundation of my work, is being able to create core values, which now, your conversations are always around those core values and aligning your actions with your values, right? And so, I was hoping this will start to open them up, but perhaps there's an exercise that you have that I could go back with around this conversation of psychological safety.
(00:12:50.536) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's all about making the space and the time to have a conversation and having a really good prompt that is comfortable for people to talk about. You know, it can be as simple—and this is kind of my go-to question—whether it's in a work environment, networking, or just meeting someone randomly. Instead of asking, what do you do? I ask, what have you been curious about recently?
(00:13:21.136) LuAnn Buechler: Hmm.
(00:13:23.236) Talia Rosenblum: And you know, it kind of just is something that opens up a door and you can get a little bit of a glimpse inside someone. And granted, there has to be that comfort level. And so, what I always tell leaders and other folks when they're kind of thinking of trying to do something like this and using this really simple prompt: you should start first. It has to be authentic and genuine, right? Like you.
(00:13:49.336) LuAnn Buechler: Yes,
(00:13:49.836) Talia Rosenblum: You can't go into the situation asking someone something personal because what you're curious about is, but it's not a scary personal. You can't do that if they recognize that you wouldn't do the same, right? It's a street.
(00:14:07.236) LuAnn Buechler: that
(00:14:07.936) Talia Rosenblum: happened.
(00:14:08.236) LuAnn Buechler: I was initially questioning the word 'curious,' but then again, the word 'curious' opens up the box a little bigger, as it can be something about the world outside, in your personal life or in the company.
(00:14:31.436) Talia Rosenblum: and I
(00:14:33.236) LuAnn Buechler: I questioned that. An answer someone might have given me in that particular dynamic would be, 'I'm curious about how we're going to grow to the levels you're forecasting.'
(00:14:45.136) Talia Rosenblum: totally
(00:14:45.636) LuAnn Buechler: have right and now we allow all. So, a nice dialogue of getting understanding of where the vision, the visionaries of the company are going, right?
(00:14:58.136) Talia Rosenblum: But then,
(00:14:58.836) LuAnn Buechler: that's that question. Super cool.
(00:15:01.436) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah,
(00:15:02.336) LuAnn Buechler: Cool. And so I see it as a natural in team building. If you want to call it that, I like the team experience better as terminology to use in the business environment because I think team building has a connotation of role-playing.
(00:15:23.036) Talia Rosenblum: Totally. Totally. It's funny.
(00:15:26.236) LuAnn Buechler: I like using roleplay.
(00:15:28.536) Talia Rosenblum: Right. I actually think team building is great in specific situations, right? If, as an organization, things are going pretty well and you're trying to celebrate something and you want to have fun together, and there's that foundation. But if you don't have the foundation and you try to do the traditional team building, a lot of people are like, I'm here but I'm not here, right? So yeah, I like the term team experience. I also try, just because I'm doing something different, to say well there's team building and what I do is team relationship building. So playing with that terminology, but I like the team experience too. So I might steal it.
(00:16:17.136) LuAnn Buechler: Go ahead, use it, right? There's enough for everybody.
(00:16:21.236) Talia Rosenblum: absolutely
(00:16:22.236) LuAnn Buechler: Supporting each other. So have you ever heard of a thing called open space?
(00:16:29.236) Talia Rosenblum: Um, it's not coming to mind so I'm going to say no, and I'm gonna ask you to tell me what it is.
(00:16:35.936) LuAnn Buechler: That's great. That's fine. It's an exercise or a way of creating discussion that I learned in a transformational conference, and you lay out these rules, and they're very simple rules, and they really open it up for people to be able to make their own decisions of how they're going to play the game, if you will. Then you open up what they call the marketplace for like 20 minutes, and anybody can put a topic in that they want to discuss and brainstorm or share with others, right? Then those topics are placed around the room on the wall, and you get to choose which one you want to go be a part of.
(00:17:26.236) Talia Rosenblum: Love it.
(00:17:27.236) LuAnn Buechler: And then you capture what the group discussion was in bullet points or what have you, and then split up and do it again. So you end up getting to participate in three different discussions.
(00:17:41.536) Talia Rosenblum: Amazing.
(00:17:42.536) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, and so it isn't a corporate team building and mindset that it was built around. Alright, let's get everybody's input on
(00:17:52.036) Talia Rosenblum: it and totally
(00:17:52.836) LuAnn Buechler: Really fabulous to get people's input when you're making change in a company.
(00:17:57.736) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, and I actually think one of the most important things about it too is that they're coming up with the topics because oftentimes they've seen, you know, the leaders before whatever retreat they're doing, they're like, these are the things we want to talk about, which is great, but the power is in the people in my mind. And so you, yeah, you're sitting there and it's like, I want to talk about this and then there's other people that want to talk about it as well. And you get to have these great conversations and oh man, talking about things, and it just creates that connection that, you know, when we're constantly on our computers, on Slack, on whatever it might be, can fall away, unfortunately.
(00:18:44.136) LuAnn Buechler: And I very often see, it's always communication. That's the breakdown in organizations at some level. And I often see that the team has different topics they want to talk about than the leaders ever imagined. If you let the leaders direct the topics, they're not in the same space,
(00:19:07.736) Talia Rosenblum: right? That's 100%.
(00:19:10.336) LuAnn Buechler: Open up this space for conversation and connection and creativity. I mean all these great words from
(00:19:19.836) Talia Rosenblum: the
(00:19:19.936) LuAnn Buechler: 60s are part of that process, so I'm looking for opportunities to do more of that.
(00:19:27.436) Talia Rosenblum: Facilitate that? Yeah,
(00:19:29.336) LuAnn Buechler: Right, and outside third-party facilitators. What you want, right? You don't want any perceived bias in that
(00:19:35.836) Talia Rosenblum: Situation? Exactly. Because that
(00:19:38.736) LuAnn Buechler: Way, gonna break down the whole situation so that's Talia has a business because she can be that third-party facilitator. Or
(00:19:48.536) Talia Rosenblum: Exactly.
(00:19:49.036) LuAnn Buechler: Exactly that one tonight.
(00:19:51.736) Talia Rosenblum: Yes, you did. Thank you.
(00:19:53.236) LuAnn Buechler: And I do that too with my groups, so that's fantastic. So what do you think has changed since Covid around?
(00:20:08.036) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, so it's really interesting. I firmly believe that any of our working environments, whether it's in person, hybrid, or remote, there are ways of creating connection. I think the biggest challenge we've seen is this real push towards productivity, and that is also partnered with what I consider lower forms of communication, right? So text—there are no social cues when you're slacking, when you're doing this. And when we're so busy, I've kind of found that a lot of the communication we've had has started to become tactical in a way, like, what's the update on this? Where are we on this? How's this going? And it's important that as a leader, you're having those conversations. That as a team, you're understanding how things are going. But the whole piece about strategically being connected—you've got to make the time for it. It's not just about the deadlines and knowing that people are doing their jobs, right? That's like the quick messages, all of that, and saying, let's make space for more than that, even if it's just a quick five-minute conversation. Or, you know, I used to, when I was working fully remote, I would have—I don't know if it was half an hour, an hour every week—it was an optional meeting and my whole team was invited, and the only rule we had was we couldn't talk about work.
(00:22:04.836) LuAnn Buechler: Interesting.
(00:22:06.036) Talia Rosenblum: And so you can make the space, but I think with covid we've gotten so, like do do, do, do, and so many people are working remote that we've just fallen into these habits that have really affected connection, and I don't know that it's something that is necessarily obvious to people. I think people feel something different, but it's hard to put their finger on it.
(00:22:32.136) LuAnn Buechler: Well, I think it's interesting because what you first said earlier is the power is in the people. And I learned that even when I was studying hospitality in college, right? They would say your employees are your greatest asset, and that's absolutely true. Still today, they are your front line to your customers. You want your people to be happy when they are interacting with your customers because you want them to make your customers happy.
(00:23:02.836) Talia Rosenblum: Absolutely.
(00:23:04.536) LuAnn Buechler: So leaders need to recognize the importance of the people in the equation. I was just having a conversation with a bunch of tech people about AI's functionality in our business, right? And even the AI people said, yeah, the tech people said, it has to have a people component, it
(00:23:27.836) Talia Rosenblum: cannot
(00:23:28.436) LuAnn Buechler: Just be the technology. So for the listeners, please, please, please remember that. And as efficient of a tool AI is and how helpful—I love it, too—it's not just that the power is in the people, but,
(00:23:47.036) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, I much totally. I have a background in hospitality too and in tech, and when I was in tech, it was customer support. So, I feel this very much, and, to be honest, kind of that speak around AI and customer support and connection and people was part of the reason why I kind of started moving away from that. Because I also see the value in it, right? It's great that I can make things more efficient. No one should be picking up a phone call or writing an email to help someone reset a password, right? Like, it's simple things like that. But when someone is struggling and now they're just arguing with an AI bot, that is not good customer service. And so there has to be people and, you know, I could go on forever. But quite frankly, customer support brings a lot more value than just answering and talking to customers. The information they get to pass along is super important. So, I'm right there with you.
(00:24:52.636) LuAnn Buechler: Yes. Sorry. We transitioned into a little
(00:24:55.636) Talia Rosenblum: Check.
(00:24:56.036) LuAnn Buechler: Station.
(00:24:56.636) Talia Rosenblum: but
(00:24:56.936) LuAnn Buechler: One of the things I'm curious about these days is there seems to be a trend back to, I want a human being on the phone. I mean, I don't feel like we were in that realm where we always got an AI bot for very long, and people are already going, 'Wait a minute, I want to talk to a live person.' I see many companies understanding that and making sure they keep that human connection.
(00:25:32.236) Talia Rosenblum: Mm-hmm.
(00:25:33.836) LuAnn Buechler: There is that human connection, right?
(00:25:37.036) Talia Rosenblum: Absolutely, absolutely. Customers want it and companies, I hope, want it. I'm glad that you're seeing that. I think I'm still trying to figure out if I'm seeing that, but I'm a positive person, so I choose yes.
(00:25:52.136) LuAnn Buechler: The curiosity in it. Where's it gonna land? Well, you know.
(00:25:56.936) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah.
(00:25:57.236) LuAnn Buechler: Curious about that.
(00:25:58.636) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, I've been
(00:25:59.536) LuAnn Buechler: saying
(00:25:59.836) Talia Rosenblum: It kind of feels like a pendulum and we're kind of on the extreme side. And I'm like, are we gonna—hopefully we're gonna just get somewhere here where there's a nice balance of AI does stuff, humans do things, we work together, but we'll see.
(00:26:13.836) LuAnn Buechler: Work together. I like
(00:26:16.236) Talia Rosenblum: It's
(00:26:16.436) LuAnn Buechler: Right. You talked about productivity, or you mentioned the word productivity. And here's another thing I'm curious about: I feel like those leaders that have been around longer than others are stuck on that word, productivity. And there's a—well, one of my mentors says we're in a trust recession. There's a lack of trust that people are actually being productive unless I can see you. When we're in separate homes, separate buildings, whatever, right? Or some in the building and some at home. There's a question, a trust question, around productivity. Would you agree?
(00:27:07.436) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, absolutely, 100%. I think that was a big part of what was happening during covid when it was so quick that people, you know, went home. There was this big question about it, and I remember having team supervisors who reported to me, and they were much more concerned than me, and I remember just being like, look at the work done. We don't have to see what they're doing as long as it's getting done.
(00:27:41.036) LuAnn Buechler: I, you know, that to me, I agree completely and that our factor needs to be based on the work getting done, not on how many hours or time they put into it, right?
(00:27:55.436) Talia Rosenblum: Totally
(00:27:56.336) LuAnn Buechler: That adage that many of us want to stop trading time for money, right?
(00:28:02.036) Talia Rosenblum: Totally
(00:28:03.036) LuAnn Buechler: on
(00:28:03.736) Talia Rosenblum: the same
(00:28:04.036) LuAnn Buechler: in our employees. We should consider that, right. Like it's not about, I need to use them up for eight or ten hours a day.
(00:28:11.536) Talia Rosenblum: It's like
(00:28:12.536) LuAnn Buechler: It's like, this needs to be done today, and if you get it done in two hours, great?
(00:28:17.336) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, no. Absolutely.
(00:28:19.436) LuAnn Buechler: Find a more efficient way to get it done. That gets it done faster than it used to be? You should be rewarded and recognized.
(00:28:28.436) Talia Rosenblum: Absolutely, absolutely. And I think that what tends to happen is people are so stretched that they're like, if this person can do their work faster, we can get more work done. And that might be true, but it might not. And also, what are the consequences of doing that?
(00:28:51.436) LuAnn Buechler: What is that?
(00:28:52.636) Talia Rosenblum: Exactly. And it's high.
(00:28:55.336) LuAnn Buechler: And burnout.
(00:28:56.836) Talia Rosenblum: Exactly. Exactly.
(00:28:59.136) LuAnn Buechler: Why would we want to burn out our best people?
(00:29:02.736) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, yeah. And you know, something else that I think about that. I've kind of witnessed also is um, some people have a different expectation of how they should be working and how the people working for them or under them should be. And there's there's an understanding of more flexibility because, you know, they're a leader or manager or whatever their title is. But they they have a hard time understanding that you know, everyone deserves the same kind of flexibility. And I remember years ago when I was still in corporate doing a training on leadership and I the only thing I remember from this I'll be honest was that when they asked employees. The number one, most important thing that mattered to them from their leadership. It was flexibility. And you just think about that, and it's like the one thing people want is some flexibility.
(00:30:09.536) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, I just want to encourage our listeners, our business owners out there, to really rethink how you view productivity and who you're rewarding, right? Because if you allow people to say that you want this done in eight hours and it's not going to take me that long, the next thing they're going to do is drag it out. Right? So it's important for them to get it done in the most efficient way they can and recognize those who are getting things done faster, not by giving them more work,
(00:30:54.836) Talia Rosenblum: right? Right. Absolutely.
(00:30:57.436) LuAnn Buechler: Our historic tendency. Yeah,
(00:31:00.236) Talia Rosenblum: But productivity
(00:31:01.136) LuAnn Buechler: Recognition. Yeah, exactly. So again, be curious about how you're looking at productivity and you might want to rethink that. I want to go to another section here because I am working on a project in my community. We live in the 507 area code and we call it the 507 experience,
(00:31:24.036) Talia Rosenblum: Okay?
(00:31:25.536) LuAnn Buechler: But in essence, what we're trying to create is connection in community.
(00:31:31.236) Talia Rosenblum: love and
(00:31:32.136) LuAnn Buechler: people to talk about other things than politics and the weather, and you know, let's talk
(00:31:40.636) Talia Rosenblum: about I know
(00:31:41.236) LuAnn Buechler: thankful to us, you know, this is the work you're doing. So tell me about your community connections that you do.
(00:31:47.436) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, so the community events that I do, there's two different types that I'm doing right now. One is actually not as facilitated, it's called a social experiment, and we turn a space device-free for three hours, and I'm basically holding the space. And what that means is I welcome the people who come in. People come alone for conversation and connection, right? That's the beauty of it. Everyone is showing up because they know they want to have good conversations with new and different people. And so, during that experience, it's not like you talk to these people, you talk to those; it's like come and go. You can come for five minutes, you can stay for three hours. Here are some prompts to get you started. And, you know, I've had some of the most lovely conversations. There was one woman who has come to a few of them—love getting repeat customers—and she was born deaf. She now has a cochlear implant and hearing aids, and we had this fascinating conversation about the first time she heard music. And you just stop and think about that for a moment. And it's like, wow. And this is someone I probably never would have crossed paths with. I don't mean that in a bad way, just it's a big world we live in,
(00:33:06.236) LuAnn Buechler: right?
(00:33:06.736) Talia Rosenblum: And you can have these lovely conversations about things. The prompts are really important just to create that first level of safety. But what's great is I do find that people just talk and they go on tangents and it's not about the politics. What is different about us? It's about all the things we have in common and that we're curious about. So that's one of the experiences, and then as I said, I do kind of the fuller 90-minute facilitation but in a ticketed format. So again, it's for people that are looking to meet people and have good conversations with them. That one is very formatted so that we have the different prompts that are happening. What I actually do at the beginning is when they're checking in, we're getting their devices put in little pouches, so they're device-free, and they actually get a welcome card, I call them. And so as they're moving in and starting to socialize before the experience actually starts, they have something to talk about that isn't about their job, their roles, or the weather. And my favorite one, because this was one of the first ones I thought of and it has gotten very interesting reactions, is: okay, if you were putting your shoes and your socks on at the same time, right? Are you doing sock, sock, shoe, shoe, or sock, shoe, sock, shoe? I am not in the majority of what people do, and I have multiple times been told that I'm maybe a little psychotic for doing sock, shoe, sock, shoe. And I'm like, this is hilarious because then people are like, wait, what is going on? And so they're having these little conversations and it's really setting the stage in this beautiful way. That's not, I'm walking into the space with strangers, I don't know what I'm supposed to talk about, I'll talk about my job because what else am I gonna talk about, because that's just our social etiquette we have. How do we change that? And it's really lovely and exciting to see.
(00:35:22.736) LuAnn Buechler: It's so funny. I have another one for you. A friend of mine used to use this as an icebreaker all the time, and it is: how do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Do you put the peanut butter on one side and the jelly on the other side and put the sandwich together, or do you put the peanut butter and jelly on one half and then just put the other piece of bread?
(00:35:47.236) Talia Rosenblum: How strong opinions,
(00:35:48.236) LuAnn Buechler: what else? You know?
(00:35:51.436) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, totally
(00:35:52.836) LuAnn Buechler: shoot. That's a good one too. I really love that.
(00:35:55.836) Talia Rosenblum: And
(00:35:57.436) LuAnn Buechler: People that are listening again, you know, this is not rocket science. You can come up with things that are common like that, putting your shoes and socks on or making it be ugly sandwich, and use as conversation starters in your teams or your social experiments, you know.
(00:36:18.536) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah.
(00:36:19.036) LuAnn Buechler: Alright. Call it what you'd like, but that's fantastic. And yeah, I'm gonna take this all back to my 507 experience committee and share that with them. We may be giving you a call in the future.
(00:36:32.936) Talia Rosenblum: For a little bit. Absolutely, I'd love that. The more connection, the better. Honestly, I'm like, however I could spread this and get us off of our phones and talking to humans again.
(00:36:46.236) LuAnn Buechler: In a meaningful
(00:36:48.136) Talia Rosenblum: conversation.
(00:36:49.236) LuAnn Buechler: Not surface level.
(00:36:52.436) Talia Rosenblum: Mm-hmm.
(00:36:53.236) LuAnn Buechler: Call that something else, but
(00:36:55.336) Talia Rosenblum: Yeah, small talks are
(00:36:56.736) LuAnn Buechler: Small talk. That's it. That's right, which is a tendency we have to go to all the time. A little buzzer going off over here. I don't know if you hear that. No.
(00:37:08.536) Talia Rosenblum: I mean, I might have heard a little bit, but not very loud. So,
(00:37:11.236) LuAnn Buechler: Any last words, nugget for our
(00:37:15.036) Talia Rosenblum: Audience? Oh, gosh,
(00:37:16.936) LuAnn Buechler: For today?
(00:37:17.736) Talia Rosenblum: On the spot. No, I would just say, you know, creating connection is really part of being a leader within a team, within a community, within, you know, resident. All of these places, any groups you have. I think that really showing leadership is partly harnessing that connection, and just remember that it's not fluff. It's actually a very important, foundational piece of everything we do. So
(00:37:49.536) LuAnn Buechler: That is excellent. Perfect. Admit the human connection is powerful and we need it. We desire it and it's never going away. So let's get good at it.
(00:38:02.536) Talia Rosenblum: Yes,
(00:38:03.236) LuAnn Buechler: I like
(00:38:04.736) Talia Rosenblum: it.
(00:38:05.236) LuAnn Buechler: Thanks again for visiting us today, Talia. That was fantastic. Everybody out there, please go out and make your passion pay and have meaningful connections with the people you work with and associate with in your life. Thanks for listening.
(00:38:24.936) Talia Rosenblum: Bye.