16 Jul Speak Your Mind to Meet People

Do you ever think of something that you’d like to ask someone, but chicken out? It can be intimidating to approach someone you don’t know. You might think, “What if they are annoyed? What if they tell me to get lost? What if I make a fool out of myself?”

These are all common and understandable concerns. However, these fears are rarely realized for two reasons:

1. Most people simply don’t approach strangers even when they think of something to say.

2. When people to approach strangers, they rarely get rejected.

Speak Your Mind to Meet People

It is a healthy thing to do to speak your mind to meet people. Last week in Jasper, Alberta, I met a lovely young couple. I had something that I wanted to say to them. Well, actually it was a question that I had. I noticed them from where we were camping. I had observed that they had a very tiny baby with them. They were camping in a trailer. Upon seeing that, the question that came to me was,

“How long can you travel with a tiny baby?”

I saw that they were packing up their camp when I was on my way to the washroom. At that point, I thought, “Oh, it looks like they are getting ready to go. If I’m going to speak to them, I need to act now!” So I did.

Act on Impulse

Rather than take my pee as planned, I made a sudden change in my course and b-lined for their camp. Upon approaching, this is what I said,

“Excuse me. May I ask you a quick question?” Danielle happily said, “Sure.” “I see that you’ve got an infant here. Are you travelling for a weekend or a week? How long can you travel with a tiny baby?”

And with that, I met the parents Jake and Danielle, and we got into a really enjoyable conversation. I didn’t expect to get rejected as having approached thousands of strangers over the years has proven to me, it’s extremely rare to get turned down. In fact, Danielle expressed her gratitude for my approach as we learned about how they had been travelling for four months already. I was able to share some recommendations for great places for them to visit in Alberta and British Colombia.

This conversation made my day. I also loved how they were ok to have their photo taken, but did not want their child’s face in it. They keep their baby’s face out of all photos – brilliant!

Thoughts about what we see and experience in our surroundings run through our mind all the time every day. Use these thoughts to help you connect with strangers. You will be happy that you did.

We need human connection now more than ever.

Tony Esteves is an entrepreneur and performer who dearly wants more people to connect face-to-face. He is a facilitator and coach who created the Talk2MorePeople Project. In 2016/17 he met at least one new stranger a day for a full year. The Talk2MorePeople book – a guidebook for how to meet people, will be released on January 21, 2021. Tony is passionate about being outdoors, travel and play.