ACTIVATE YOUR NETWORK With Alana Muller

Howard Brown: 00:00:04

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:07

Show. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Oh my God. We are going to have

Howard Brown: 00:00:11

coffee. And we are going to shine so brightly today. I've

Howard Brown: 00:00:15

got an amazing guest, Alana Muller. How are you?

Alana Muller: 00:00:19

I'm great. Howard. I'm so happy to see you and talk

Alana Muller: 00:00:22

with you today.

Howard Brown: 00:00:23

I already feel the energy. It's just incredible. I

Howard Brown: 00:00:26

have to tell you that your son goes to Babson College.

Alana Muller: 00:00:30

I signed us to Babson. We are we are Babbo

Alana Muller: 00:00:33

people.

Howard Brown: 00:00:33

We are battle people. Yes. And so being my

Howard Brown: 00:00:36

alma mater, and being a former trustee and president of the

Howard Brown: 00:00:40

Alumni Association, I bleed green, and now you're bleeding

Howard Brown: 00:00:42

green. And also big shout out to

Alana Muller: 00:00:46

Mindy Corcoran, our wonderful mutual friend who

Alana Muller: 00:00:49

I think is the way that we met one another. I

Howard Brown: 00:00:52

believe Mindy said you have to meet and we did. And

Howard Brown: 00:00:55

now we've become we've become friends. And then we found the

Howard Brown: 00:00:57

Babson connection. And it's truly incredible. And the more I

Howard Brown: 00:01:03

learned about your story, I was like, you gotta be on my show.

Howard Brown: 00:01:05

And this is incredible.

Alana Muller: 00:01:07

Honour, it's an honour. Thank ya.

Howard Brown: 00:01:09

So for those that are just listening, a letter has

Howard Brown: 00:01:13

actually coffee, lunch, coffee and checkboxes all behind her on

Howard Brown: 00:01:16

her screen. And she's going to tell us what that is. So why

Howard Brown: 00:01:20

don't you share just a little bit more about you.

Alana Muller: 00:01:23

I would love to thank you so much. And truly,

Alana Muller: 00:01:26

it's such a pleasure to be here you are an inspiration. So I

Alana Muller: 00:01:29

just love talking with you. But my company coffee, lunch coffee,

Alana Muller: 00:01:32

what I primarily do is I train people to build better, more

Alana Muller: 00:01:36

meaningful professional relationships through

Alana Muller: 00:01:38

networking. I think that, you know, in this day and age, we

Alana Muller: 00:01:41

cannot afford not to welcome networking into our lives not to

Alana Muller: 00:01:45

somehow incorporate relationship building authentic, meaningful

Alana Muller: 00:01:49

connections into into our daily lives. And so I get the

Alana Muller: 00:01:53

wonderful privilege to help people do a better job of making

Alana Muller: 00:01:56

those connections. I also do a lot of strategic planning, a lot

Alana Muller: 00:02:00

of facilitation and really what that what that does for me is

Alana Muller: 00:02:05

that allows me to truly live my purpose and everyday connect

Alana Muller: 00:02:09

with wonderful people around the world.

Howard Brown: 00:02:12

And you do a lot of community service.

Alana Muller: 00:02:14

I do. I do. In fact, through Mindy and I who

Alana Muller: 00:02:18

honestly she and I've been friends for many, many years.

Alana Muller: 00:02:21

But as you know from having had her on, you're on the same

Alana Muller: 00:02:24

podcast, Mindy had a tragedy in her life that that drew us even

Alana Muller: 00:02:29

closer, we were always professional friends. But truly

Alana Muller: 00:02:32

now we think of ourselves as a start, she she started an

Alana Muller: 00:02:35

organisation called seven days, which really focuses on

Alana Muller: 00:02:38

overcoming hatred, through education and understanding. And

Alana Muller: 00:02:43

that's that's driven by, by different ways to promote

Alana Muller: 00:02:47

kindness. And so Mindy and I have gotten very close over

Alana Muller: 00:02:51

seven days. And and really, it's it's part of both of our our

Alana Muller: 00:02:55

living purpose. Yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:02:57

for those listening, Mindy lost her dad

Howard Brown: 00:02:59

and her son for domestic terrorism shooting at Kansas

Howard Brown: 00:03:03

City at a Jewish Community Centre. They're not Jewish, they

Howard Brown: 00:03:05

were there for a theatre event. And she's wrote a book and she's

Howard Brown: 00:03:10

been on the podcast to talk about how you can heal from

Howard Brown: 00:03:14

grief and move forward even know how difficult it is. So shout

Howard Brown: 00:03:18

out to Mindy and such a great thing that we're connected this

Howard Brown: 00:03:20

way now. All right, you have to tell us something maybe we you

Howard Brown: 00:03:24

don't share all the time or that we don't know about you?

Alana Muller: 00:03:27

Well, well. Okay, so one of the things that I'll

Alana Muller: 00:03:31

share with you is that the name of my company as as you know,

Alana Muller: 00:03:35

coffee, lunch coffee. Yeah. My little secret, though, is that I

Alana Muller: 00:03:39

don't drink coffee. So as you know very well, I'm very well,

Alana Muller: 00:03:46

caffeine, right? There's no There's no problem with that my

Alana Muller: 00:03:49

caffeination level. But but it's not about the coffee. It's not

Alana Muller: 00:03:52

about the coffee, I get plenty of caffeine intake. But to me

Alana Muller: 00:03:55

what coffee lunch coffee really stands for is is an approach to

Alana Muller: 00:04:00

what I call intentional networking, intentional

Alana Muller: 00:04:02

relationship building. And so when I first began building

Alana Muller: 00:04:06

relationships very intentionally, I thought that if

Alana Muller: 00:04:08

I carved up my day, along the lines of the days of people like

Alana Muller: 00:04:12

you people who I wanted to connect with that eventually

Alana Muller: 00:04:14

you'd say yes to me. And so I structured my days along a

Alana Muller: 00:04:19

morning meeting, time slot, a midday meeting timeslot, and an

Alana Muller: 00:04:22

afternoon meeting time slot. And as a joke, I call that morning,

Alana Muller: 00:04:25

midday and afternoon coffee, lunch, coffee, and it stuck. And

Alana Muller: 00:04:28

so coffee, lunch, coffee is sort of the way that I live my life.

Alana Muller: 00:04:31

It's my days really do look like coffee, lunch, coffee, sometimes

Alana Muller: 00:04:34

it's coffee, coffee, lunch, coffee, coffee, drinks, dinner,

Alana Muller: 00:04:37

and dessert, of course, but but the idea is that this is much

Alana Muller: 00:04:42

more about again, structuring those meaningful opportunities

Alana Muller: 00:04:46

for connection.

Howard Brown: 00:04:48

What do you drink, then?

Alana Muller: 00:04:49

I drink a lot of tea. It used to be a call, I

Alana Muller: 00:04:52

mean, real Coca Cola. But, um, but yeah, in fact, when I wrote

Alana Muller: 00:04:57

my book in the back cover of My blog has me drinking a giant

Alana Muller: 00:05:01

Coca Cola. But, but I gave that up, I gave it up. And so now, a

Alana Muller: 00:05:06

lot of tea,

Howard Brown: 00:05:08

I drink enough coffee for both of us, I make my

Howard Brown: 00:05:10

own my own ice, ice brew cold brew and all that stuff. They

Howard Brown: 00:05:16

say it helps your colon I don't know. But yeah, I love my

Howard Brown: 00:05:21

coffee. So I have to have that. Well, I want to dig in a little

Howard Brown: 00:05:24

bit deeper, because what you're doing, okay, is very similar to

Howard Brown: 00:05:30

what I actually love to talk about, which is mentorship is

Howard Brown: 00:05:33

leadership. But you're giving people and making value over

Howard Brown: 00:05:38

over coffee of people how to actually build trusted

Howard Brown: 00:05:41

relationships, build high quality relationships, take take

Howard Brown: 00:05:45

me more into how you're training people to do that. Well,

Alana Muller: 00:05:48

so one of the things I love that you said is

Alana Muller: 00:05:50

to build trusted relationships, you know, and you and I actually

Alana Muller: 00:05:53

have experienced this, we've actually never been together in

Alana Muller: 00:05:56

person. And yet, I feel like we're close, I feel like we have

Alana Muller: 00:05:59

a trusting relationship. But as you know, that is built as a

Alana Muller: 00:06:03

series of touch points over time, right. So if we have touch

Alana Muller: 00:06:06

points, over time, a series of those, we're able to establish

Alana Muller: 00:06:10

more of a connection, we're able to get to know one another

Alana Muller: 00:06:12

better to know how we can support one another. And

Alana Muller: 00:06:15

something you do very well, that I always think is so critical,

Alana Muller: 00:06:18

when it comes to relationship building is asking the question,

Alana Muller: 00:06:21

What can I do to help you and actually following through on

Alana Muller: 00:06:23

that. And so when I think of building those trusting

Alana Muller: 00:06:27

relationships over time, it's having a touch point, another

Alana Muller: 00:06:30

touch point, and another touch point. And the deal is this,

Alana Muller: 00:06:33

we're all busy people, right? We're very busy people, we all

Alana Muller: 00:06:37

have the same 24 hours in a day, and we are filling up those

Alana Muller: 00:06:40

days, we're filling up that time. And so at least in my

Alana Muller: 00:06:43

life, nobody is sitting by the phone waiting for my phone call.

Alana Muller: 00:06:46

And yet, if our first connection is an authentic one, if we're

Alana Muller: 00:06:50

having a great conversation, if we if we genuinely and

Alana Muller: 00:06:54

authentically want to get to know one another, then the next

Alana Muller: 00:06:57

time we come together, whether that's in two days time, two

Alana Muller: 00:07:00

months time or two years time, what that means is that the next

Alana Muller: 00:07:04

time we connect, it's going to be authentic again, and we can

Alana Muller: 00:07:06

continue to build out those relationships. And so that

Alana Muller: 00:07:10

that's one of the things that I stress is to is to really

Alana Muller: 00:07:13

understand that nurturing your connections is just as important

Alana Muller: 00:07:16

as having them in the first place. So we have to continue to

Alana Muller: 00:07:19

cultivate those relationships that we already have. So when

Alana Muller: 00:07:23

people talk about, you know, is networking, all about new

Alana Muller: 00:07:26

relationships, it's not it's about continuing to cultivate

Alana Muller: 00:07:28

the relationships that we already have, as well as

Alana Muller: 00:07:31

establishing new ones.

Howard Brown: 00:07:33

I actually have to tell you that we've been on

Howard Brown: 00:07:37

about a monthly cadence, okay? We got connected through Babson.

Howard Brown: 00:07:41

And in the green room, you just told me a fascinating story

Howard Brown: 00:07:44

about meeting some other Babson, you know, women that have

Howard Brown: 00:07:47

children there or alum there and things like that. And I have to

Howard Brown: 00:07:50

tell you that every time we talk, it is valuable. We don't

Howard Brown: 00:07:55

mess around, we actually we catch up, we talk family and all

Howard Brown: 00:07:58

that. But we also are pushing it ahead. And we've had already,

Howard Brown: 00:08:03

you know, very high quality introductions that we believe

Howard Brown: 00:08:06

can benefit each other doesn't always work out. But I've

Howard Brown: 00:08:10

noticed that. And so I guess I'm kind of like a little hybrid

Howard Brown: 00:08:13

model, because I've actually didn't realise that since we got

Howard Brown: 00:08:16

introduced in February been touching about every month. And

Howard Brown: 00:08:19

we jump on for a half hour on a zoom. And we've been actually

Howard Brown: 00:08:22

making very good use of that time.

Alana Muller: 00:08:24

We're sort of, we're sort of the rats in our

Alana Muller: 00:08:26

own maze, right. We're experiencing this in real time.

Alana Muller: 00:08:31

And I agree with that. And, and the thing is, we I think what

Alana Muller: 00:08:35

that shows us that we not to overuse the word, but we both

Alana Muller: 00:08:38

show up as our authentic selves, we have these robust

Alana Muller: 00:08:41

conversations. And I mean, in the spirit of leaving, leave it

Alana Muller: 00:08:44

leave them wanting more, as they say, I always feel like we run

Alana Muller: 00:08:48

out of time, before we completed our conversation and in some in

Alana Muller: 00:08:52

sort of an amazing, wonderful way. I love that. And it's not

Alana Muller: 00:08:56

that I don't want to finish the conversation. It's just that we

Alana Muller: 00:08:59

don't have enough time to get it all in. And I think that that's

Alana Muller: 00:09:01

a very special mark of a good relationship, a good friendship,

Howard Brown: 00:09:05

right. And so and then I want you to take it a

Howard Brown: 00:09:08

step deeper, because not only do you actually help people, for

Howard Brown: 00:09:13

their professional lives, you actually help discover their

Howard Brown: 00:09:16

purpose. And that is that is really when you get to know

Howard Brown: 00:09:19

somebody when the trust is there. And you and I have shared

Howard Brown: 00:09:23

you know, of our caring of community and caring of

Howard Brown: 00:09:26

community service. And I love that part about it. Tell me how

Howard Brown: 00:09:30

you're able to do that.

Alana Muller: 00:09:31

So I had a I had the very fortunate opportunity

Alana Muller: 00:09:35

many years ago you and I are both in the entrepreneur,

Alana Muller: 00:09:37

entrepreneurial space entrepreneurship world. And many

Alana Muller: 00:09:40

years ago I was running our company called Kauffman fast

Alana Muller: 00:09:43

track which many many of our listeners today may be familiar

Alana Muller: 00:09:45

with. It's a it's an old programme that has been

Alana Muller: 00:09:48

incredibly successful at training entrepreneurs to start

Alana Muller: 00:09:50

and grow companies. And so when I was running that company, one

Alana Muller: 00:09:54

of my clients an organisation out of Vail, Colorado, invited

Alana Muller: 00:09:58

me to come in experience their approach to entrepreneurial

Alana Muller: 00:10:01

development. And through that experience, I was able to

Alana Muller: 00:10:05

establish and articulate my own life's purpose, which sounds

Alana Muller: 00:10:08

like sort of this big thing that was impossible. And yet they

Alana Muller: 00:10:12

broke it down in a way that made it incredibly doable, and in

Alana Muller: 00:10:16

some ways obvious. So what I tell people is that my mission

Alana Muller: 00:10:20

is to connect, inspire and empower community. And as basic

Alana Muller: 00:10:25

as that might sound for me, it just fills me up, I want to run

Alana Muller: 00:10:28

to the rooftops and shout to connect, inspire and empower

Alana Muller: 00:10:31

community. My family can say that out loud, they can they

Alana Muller: 00:10:34

know exactly who I am when I say that, and I think it really

Alana Muller: 00:10:38

does. It really does illustrate kind of what I feel in my heart,

Alana Muller: 00:10:43

as well as in my head. And so I tried to help other people to

Alana Muller: 00:10:47

identify, sort of tease out, identify and articulate their

Alana Muller: 00:10:51

own purpose statements so they can get started on that. You

Alana Muller: 00:10:55

know what one of the things that I think is interesting, at least

Alana Muller: 00:10:58

in this country, we're on the United States recording this

Alana Muller: 00:11:00

podcast. In this country, we have a tendency to

Alana Muller: 00:11:02

compartmentalise our lives, we have a home life, we have a

Alana Muller: 00:11:05

community life, and we have a work life. And for many people

Alana Muller: 00:11:08

never the twain shall meet, they don't like to overlap those

Alana Muller: 00:11:11

concepts. For me, though, I like to think of those as sort of

Alana Muller: 00:11:15

three bubbles in a Venn diagram, I was a math major, so

Alana Muller: 00:11:18

everything feels better, and some mathematical terms. So I

Alana Muller: 00:11:22

like to put them together like a Venn diagram. And as you know,

Alana Muller: 00:11:25

with a Venn diagram, when you put those bubbles together,

Alana Muller: 00:11:28

something magical happens, there's that thing in the centre

Alana Muller: 00:11:30

that overlaps. And Howard, I think that that is where we play

Alana Muller: 00:11:34

our our most authentically, that is where we are our best selves.

Alana Muller: 00:11:37

And we as individuals get to decide how close those bubbles

Alana Muller: 00:11:41

get to each other. So sort of how big or how small the overall

Alana Muller: 00:11:44

graphic is. But the closer those bubbles get, the smaller the

Alana Muller: 00:11:48

overall graphic gets, magically, the thing in the centre gets

Alana Muller: 00:11:51

bigger and bigger. And I just love that. And the thing is, I

Alana Muller: 00:11:54

don't think we should be just one circle, right. So I think we

Alana Muller: 00:11:57

should save a little bit of ourselves just for home, a

Alana Muller: 00:11:59

little bit of ourselves just for work a little bit of ourselves,

Alana Muller: 00:12:02

just for community. But if we can get those bubbles relatively

Alana Muller: 00:12:06

close together, I think that we can just be the person we are in

Alana Muller: 00:12:10

all venues. So you know, it shouldn't be that when I stepped

Alana Muller: 00:12:12

outside my front door, suddenly I've become a different person,

Alana Muller: 00:12:15

I want to show up for you the way I would show up for the next

Alana Muller: 00:12:18

person I interact with and the person after that. And so by

Alana Muller: 00:12:22

helping other people to identify their purpose, and to create

Alana Muller: 00:12:25

sort of diversion for them of that Venn diagram that is the

Alana Muller: 00:12:28

most meaningful, I think people live happier lives. They're not

Alana Muller: 00:12:32

only happier in business, but they're happier, in general,

Alana Muller: 00:12:34

happier in their lives overall.

Howard Brown: 00:12:37

Wow, the Venn diagram example is incredible.

Howard Brown: 00:12:41

Because I guess you're right, people just want to show their

Howard Brown: 00:12:44

business face. All right, they show their, you know, at home

Howard Brown: 00:12:48

face or anything like that. And that is only looking at a

Howard Brown: 00:12:51

fraction of the person. And so I liked that, that you're coaching

Howard Brown: 00:12:56

and that your ability to do that allows you to explore deeper,

Howard Brown: 00:12:59

and then you actually get to control how big that bubble in

Howard Brown: 00:13:02

the middle goes. Okay, there are certainly times when you want to

Howard Brown: 00:13:06

put on your business hat and stay in business mode. There are

Howard Brown: 00:13:09

other times where, and I crossed the lines, and maybe I'm not the

Howard Brown: 00:13:12

best use case for you. Because I am an open book, right? I wrote

Howard Brown: 00:13:16

a book about my entire life, okay. And I share openly about

Howard Brown: 00:13:21

my experience, and not everyone has to do that. I totally

Howard Brown: 00:13:25

respect privacy. And there are things that you can and maybe

Howard Brown: 00:13:28

should keep private. But I like to know people. Well

Howard Brown: 00:13:33

roundedness, okay, and the we live in a world right now today,

Howard Brown: 00:13:38

where we all don't look the same talk the same, we didn't come

Howard Brown: 00:13:42

from the same countries didn't grow up with the same learnings

Howard Brown: 00:13:45

eat the same foods. And I think we've now kind of it's a very

Howard Brown: 00:13:48

tough place out there. I always say we could choose not to hate,

Howard Brown: 00:13:52

but I do a lot of work in the interfaith world, I know that

Howard Brown: 00:13:55

you do as well. And I just want respect and kindness and healing

Howard Brown: 00:14:00

for other and it also makes you broader. We know these other

Howard Brown: 00:14:04

people it rot into, and I think we've got a little more of a

Howard Brown: 00:14:07

closed loop going on in the world today. And I hope that

Howard Brown: 00:14:09

changes soon.

Alana Muller: 00:14:11

Don't you think that I mean, we do a lot of this

Alana Muller: 00:14:14

work with seven days especially with with young people. Don't

Alana Muller: 00:14:17

you think that by by articulating your own position,

Alana Muller: 00:14:22

listening to somebody else's position, and then being able to

Alana Muller: 00:14:26

process that we understand ourselves better? So it there's

Alana Muller: 00:14:30

this is not about changing minds, but it's about opening

Alana Muller: 00:14:32

minds. And and I think that's what you're describing is that

Alana Muller: 00:14:36

that, you know, by by embracing one another by listening to

Alana Muller: 00:14:40

what's going on with the other individual, we are growing

Alana Muller: 00:14:43

ourselves and so I think it's a really special thing and

Alana Muller: 00:14:46

especially as you describe in the interfaith world where we're

Alana Muller: 00:14:49

so polarised, we don't we don't need to be we don't need to be

Alana Muller: 00:14:52

as polarised we don't have to change one another's minds. But

Alana Muller: 00:14:55

I do think we need to open our minds and our hearts to one

Alana Muller: 00:14:58

another. I

Howard Brown: 00:14:59

agree. So hopefully others will as well.

Howard Brown: 00:15:02

So when, when you look for inspiration, where do you what

Howard Brown: 00:15:07

are you looking to do? How are you actually supporting yourself

Howard Brown: 00:15:10

because one of my main tenants is to use your light. Okay to

Howard Brown: 00:15:14

lift up others, okay? And everybody walks in darkness,

Howard Brown: 00:15:18

life is not an easy, you know, cake. Right? It's a roller

Howard Brown: 00:15:21

coaster. But what do you do for inspiration? How do you support?

Howard Brown: 00:15:24

You know, keeping yourself? Yeah,

Alana Muller: 00:15:26

you know, I really do. I really do agree with this,

Alana Muller: 00:15:31

like my, my own approach, I'm sort of eating, eating my own

Alana Muller: 00:15:34

food, so to speak. So. So you know, connecting with other

Alana Muller: 00:15:37

people is the thing that gives me energy, I just love that I

Alana Muller: 00:15:40

spent, our family is very, very close, as you described, my

Alana Muller: 00:15:45

husband and I have one son and the three of us are, we're

Alana Muller: 00:15:49

tight. And so we love to travel the world together, that is

Alana Muller: 00:15:52

something that sort of fills our buckets and multiple ways. You

Alana Muller: 00:15:58

know, we kind of have this this happy place when we're when here

Alana Muller: 00:16:01

we live in we live in the Kansas City area. And there's a there's

Alana Muller: 00:16:05

an area near our neighbourhood that we call the enchanted

Alana Muller: 00:16:08

forest. And it's just a it's a place where we go walking. And

Alana Muller: 00:16:12

it's just, you know, it's not it's not really a secret place,

Alana Muller: 00:16:16

but it feels like our special place. And it's a it's about a

Alana Muller: 00:16:20

one mile walk round trip from our home. But what it does is it

Alana Muller: 00:16:25

allows us to connect with each other, get outside get a little

Alana Muller: 00:16:28

fresh air. And so those are the kinds of things I do so I would

Alana Muller: 00:16:31

say connecting with other people being with other people. And

Alana Muller: 00:16:34

then especially being with family and and certainly the

Alana Muller: 00:16:37

three of us, but our extended families as well.

Howard Brown: 00:16:40

I love that. I will tell you that because our

Howard Brown: 00:16:44

Emily actually graduated University Michigan now 16

Howard Brown: 00:16:47

months ago, she's in Missoula, Montana. So we get to very

Howard Brown: 00:16:50

luckily watch her on the app. She's a TV reporter, she just

Howard Brown: 00:16:54

won an Emmy for a climate change story on Flathead Lake. She's 23

Howard Brown: 00:16:59

years old and she has it at me with her name on it. It's I'm so

Howard Brown: 00:17:03

I am so gushing. I'm so I'm so so proud. But we get to watch

Howard Brown: 00:17:08

her because we don't get to see her as often she's far away. But

Howard Brown: 00:17:11

we'll see her soon. I hopefully as well. I want you to hold up

Howard Brown: 00:17:14

your book, or your book for those because we'll show the

Howard Brown: 00:17:17

video. Tell us about your book,

Alana Muller: 00:17:20

coffee, lunch coffee. So, you know, it's

Alana Muller: 00:17:23

interesting I was as I described, I was a math person

Alana Muller: 00:17:26

numbers were much more my friend than words. But what happened to

Alana Muller: 00:17:30

me was I had gone off to kind of a professional development

Alana Muller: 00:17:34

retreat and came home a changed woman, I woke up my sleeping

Alana Muller: 00:17:39

husband to announce I was going to quit my job. And he thought

Alana Muller: 00:17:41

that I had lost my mind. But we talked for a very long time, I

Alana Muller: 00:17:46

reminded him that I'd always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Alana Muller: 00:17:48

But of course, I had no idea for this. And so I thought that the

Alana Muller: 00:17:51

way I would discover myself was to finally finally start

Alana Muller: 00:17:55

networking in the community. Because like so many of us, I

Alana Muller: 00:17:58

was overly and solely focused on the four walls of my job, head

Alana Muller: 00:18:01

down just doing my work. And I really failed to look up to see

Alana Muller: 00:18:06

what was going on around me. So that's when I started this

Alana Muller: 00:18:09

approach of a morning meeting and midday meeting and an

Alana Muller: 00:18:11

afternoon meeting. And what was remarkable is that I went from,

Alana Muller: 00:18:15

at least in my mind, having no real professional network

Alana Muller: 00:18:18

outside of my company, to suddenly connecting with people

Alana Muller: 00:18:22

all over the world. And interestingly, people started

Alana Muller: 00:18:26

reaching out to me to say, well, you get together with me. And I

Alana Muller: 00:18:28

wonder, you know, what could they possibly want from me?

Alana Muller: 00:18:30

Well, they wanted the secret to networking. And I said the

Alana Muller: 00:18:32

secret to networking, there is no secret to networking. But But

Alana Muller: 00:18:36

what was interesting is that I discovered that for me what felt

Alana Muller: 00:18:39

very natural does not usually feel natural to people. So

Alana Muller: 00:18:42

thankfully, that means I'm employable, I can teach people

Alana Muller: 00:18:45

how to network and to network in a way that makes them

Alana Muller: 00:18:47

comfortable, and really does to help them expand and become

Alana Muller: 00:18:51

happier in business and in life. And so coffee, lunch, coffee was

Alana Muller: 00:18:55

born as a blog, it's still going all these years later. That was

Alana Muller: 00:18:59

I started blogging in 2011, if you can believe it, which maybe

Alana Muller: 00:19:02

around the time that you started as well. And, and still going

Alana Muller: 00:19:06

strong to this day. But the book coffee lunch coffee is about the

Alana Muller: 00:19:10

first it's sort of it's a compilation of I would I would

Alana Muller: 00:19:15

say that about the first 50 blog posts, so edited and

Alana Muller: 00:19:18

consolidated and cleaned up. But what it is, it's what I call a

Alana Muller: 00:19:22

field guide for Master networking. And so I would say

Alana Muller: 00:19:25

anybody who utilises the book utilises the exercises that are

Alana Muller: 00:19:29

laid out inside it'll give them a really good jumpstart on how

Alana Muller: 00:19:35

to activate their network, how to activate the relationship

Alana Muller: 00:19:38

base they already have, as well as build it out to something

Alana Muller: 00:19:41

that is useful and meaningful to them. That's awesome.

Howard Brown: 00:19:46

It's incredible. So get a lot as book and start

Howard Brown: 00:19:49

building out your networks and making them more robust and and

Howard Brown: 00:19:52

making them work for you. And also the part of that is you

Howard Brown: 00:19:55

working for them because it's always a two way street. While

Howard Brown: 00:19:58

we're at the time of the show. I'm going to ask you to put on

Howard Brown: 00:20:00

your sun lamps. Yes this is good because we are shining brightly.

Howard Brown: 00:20:05

Yeah you look and shine and brightly. So we are at the

Howard Brown: 00:20:07

shining brightly spotlight. I would like you to tell people

Howard Brown: 00:20:10

how they can get in touch with you. And then I would love for

Howard Brown: 00:20:13

you to leave the show with some inspiration a story a quote and

Howard Brown: 00:20:16

then kick it over back to me for a close Thank you got

Alana Muller: 00:20:19

it. You got it? Well, I would love for people to

Alana Muller: 00:20:21

come visit me at my website coffee lunch coffee.com You can

Alana Muller: 00:20:26

access the blog at blog dot coffee at lunch coffee.com I'm

Alana Muller: 00:20:30

on LinkedIn. And you can find me on Facebook but I would love to

Alana Muller: 00:20:34

hear from people and to see what I can you be helpful to them in

Alana Muller: 00:20:38

terms of a sort of a moment of inspiration. You we had talked

Alana Muller: 00:20:42

about this before. So I've been thinking about it. And I'm gonna

Alana Muller: 00:20:46

I'm gonna take us back to our Babson connection if that works

Alana Muller: 00:20:50

for you. Okay, and another mutual person in our lives is is

Alana Muller: 00:20:54

Dean Larry Ward, who is now no longer with Babson. But at the

Alana Muller: 00:20:58

time that my son Ian started at Babson Larry was was the dean of

Alana Muller: 00:21:03

students. And I remember he gave a talk to all of us parents who

Alana Muller: 00:21:08

were dropping off our children for the first time and feeling a

Alana Muller: 00:21:10

little itchy about that. And he said he asked a question about

Alana Muller: 00:21:16

where's home? You know what he basically said, you know, when

Alana Muller: 00:21:20

you think of home, what would you call home? And he said he

Alana Muller: 00:21:23

was going to encourage the students, and not to just say,

Alana Muller: 00:21:26

you know, kind of name rank and serial number, but to say, you

Alana Muller: 00:21:30

know, tell me your name, and where do you call home. And so,

Alana Muller: 00:21:34

my son heard Larry speak as well. We talked about kind of

Alana Muller: 00:21:37

the the two conversations that are the two presentations that

Alana Muller: 00:21:41

Larry had given to the parents and then to the students. And

Alana Muller: 00:21:44

then my son told me that his the fellow sitting next to him that

Alana Muller: 00:21:47

freshman year, turned to him and said, so where's home? And my

Alana Muller: 00:21:51

son's response was wherever my parents are, which I'm gonna cry

Alana Muller: 00:21:58

sitting here, Howard,

Howard Brown: 00:22:00

might drop Mic drop. Oh, my God. Wow.

Alana Muller: 00:22:04

Okay, so after the tears, and I could process the

Alana Muller: 00:22:07

fact that my son had just said, Wherever mom and dad are. You

Alana Muller: 00:22:11

know, what that tells me is that we did something right. In terms

Alana Muller: 00:22:15

of raising our child, it reminded me that I really am

Alana Muller: 00:22:18

living my own purpose to connect, inspire and empower

Alana Muller: 00:22:21

community and that at least some of that has rubbed off on my

Alana Muller: 00:22:24

child. So I'll leave you with that. That you know, Thank you

Alana Muller: 00:22:28

Larry ward. Thank you Babson College. Thank you, Mindy.

Alana Muller: 00:22:32

Corporon and seven days for connecting you and me, Howard.

Alana Muller: 00:22:35

But but you know, there there are, you know, comments and

Alana Muller: 00:22:39

moments that happen in all of our lives. And that's one of

Alana Muller: 00:22:41

them that allowed me now to shine brightly.

Howard Brown: 00:22:45

And boy, you shining brightly, I'm going to

Howard Brown: 00:22:47

take my glasses off. So thank you for that big shout out to

Howard Brown: 00:22:49

Larry Ward who's left. Babson is now the president of University

Howard Brown: 00:22:52

of Hartford, l dub, we love you. And we wish you only the best

Howard Brown: 00:22:57

and brightest, because that's your new home or one of your

Howard Brown: 00:22:59

homes as well. And incredible inspirational quote. So thank

Howard Brown: 00:23:03

you for that. Well, this has been the shining brightly show.

Howard Brown: 00:23:06

Please find me at shining brightly.com. There, you'll

Howard Brown: 00:23:09

learn and you can find my book, you can find and hire me to

Howard Brown: 00:23:13

speak. I'm a terrific motivational speaker, and also

Howard Brown: 00:23:17

the information of run this podcast and more importantly, my

Howard Brown: 00:23:21

advocacy because that's the thing that I call home where I'm

Howard Brown: 00:23:24

helping cancer patients. I'm helping Babson young

Howard Brown: 00:23:26

entrepreneurs find their way in the world and doing my

Howard Brown: 00:23:28

interfaith work. So that's, that's some of my homes that I'm

Howard Brown: 00:23:31

sharing that to go on the theme there as well. Do you want to

Howard Brown: 00:23:35

give a quick shout out to the people that kind of support me,

Howard Brown: 00:23:38

sponsor me and get me going forward, as well. So the first

Howard Brown: 00:23:43

of all, a brand new sponsor, the diamond beauties magazine,

Howard Brown: 00:23:47

that's produced out of South Africa has come on board. And

Howard Brown: 00:23:50

then my publisher front edge publishing, read the spirit

Howard Brown: 00:23:53

magazine that goes up to over 50,000 Every Monday, and then

Howard Brown: 00:23:57

amplify new your network that makes my podcasts great, and

Howard Brown: 00:24:00

gives me these amazing shows every week. So thank you for

Howard Brown: 00:24:03

that. And I just want to say you are an absolute amazing guest, I

Howard Brown: 00:24:09

will have all of your information, the LinkedIn, the

Howard Brown: 00:24:11

book links and everything in the show notes, as well as all the

Howard Brown: 00:24:14

social media posts as well. And just remember, just like we did

Howard Brown: 00:24:18

today, shine brightly just a little bit each day, maybe doing

Howard Brown: 00:24:22

it during coffee, lunch and coffee, that would be helpful

Howard Brown: 00:24:26

for yourself. Use your own light, okay, and then go lift up

Howard Brown: 00:24:30

others, and then do it in your communities and do it in your

Howard Brown: 00:24:34

neighbourhoods, and the world become a better place. A lot of

Howard Brown: 00:24:37

thank you. Terrific guests. Great high energy show. And I

Howard Brown: 00:24:41

just appreciate you very much.

Alana Muller: 00:24:43

Likewise. Thanks for having me.

Howard Brown: 00:24:44

Keep shining. Thank you