The Art of Building Lasting Connections with Michelle Tabi

Have you ever scribbled a note to someone that blossomed into a lifelong bond? Michelle Tabi joins us to celebrate the art of connection, sharing tales of her vibrant journey from the bustling streets of New York to the balmy breezes of the Philippines, all while mastering the delicate dance of human rapport. In the flurry of today's digital world, Michelle's infusion of energy into every handshake and her anecdotes about scribbled messages on napkins serve as powerful reminders of the personal touch.

We delve into the feel-good science of human connections, unpacking how the simple act of reaching out can elevate our sense of well-being.  So to all the connectors out there, and to those still finding their way, I extend an open invitation: reach out, share a story, and join our community where connections are not just made—they're celebrated.

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Transcript

Jennifer: 0:37

Today we welcome into the studio Michelle Tabby, and I like to think of Michelle as the ultimate connector. She was born in New York City and she has lived in so many different places, from New York City to Westchester, to the Philippines and New Jersey, and now she's in beautiful Naples, florida. She has a bachelor's in business administration with a minor in marketing and advertising, and she's been known as the opener for high-end luxury stores like Torno and other restaurants, and currently she holds a position with a hotel. And again I go back to Michelle you are the ultimate connector. You connect people. Yes, I do, and it's so amazing because if it weren't for you there, I wouldn't be part of many different organizations or know other people, and you're always the first to go hey, do you want to go? Do you want to go? Hey, there's this event, there's this event. And you're always so thoughtful and I think that really parlays itself into being that connector, wouldn't you say?

Michelle: 1:39

Yes, I really enjoy connecting and I get a lot of energy from people and, at the same time, I like to help people, and that's really the purpose of my connecting. But there's so much more.

Jennifer: 1:53

And and you know, when you meet you when I met you for the first time, or someone meets you for the first time what you are ever so present. Like you were there, you were looking me in the eye and you're genuinely interested in that care and concern comes out in every single person. You feel like you are the only person talking to you and the only person that matters to you in your world. That is so important, isn't it? When you're connecting with other people I mean connecting like one-on-one, but then connecting as a whole people to different organizations and connecting people to these people, and that kind of thing.

Michelle: 2:31

It is. We're so drawn and so lost in our phones and our digital and I find that being live and present is much more. And the human connection. I really love the human connection. I'm so old school that I like to be live and this is a new out of my comfort zone live, but I really, I really enjoy that because I learn so much from the individual. It could be on purpose and sometimes you meet people and you don't know why at that moment and I actually have I brought a card that I received the other day that I wanted to share with you, yes, absolutely Share it so last month I've been traveling.

Michelle: 3:20

I was in New York, New Jersey, for a wedding and then the week after I was in Minnesota for a conference.

Jennifer: 3:26

My home ground and you actually sent me a picture from somewhere that you were. I'm like oh.

Michelle: 3:30

I did Because it's what you say. It chooses you and you chose me. I feel so honored to be here and thank you so much. And I received this letter and the power of connection. Do you want me to read?

Jennifer: 3:47

Go ahead, absolutely read whatever you'd like, because it's all pertaining, it's so important.

Michelle: 3:52

So the other day I received a letter and my front desk says, oh, there's a letter for you. And I said, well, I don't know anyone from St Peter, minnesota. And here it is. And inside the card I have a Starbucks gift card, which is my favorite, and it says Dear Michelle, it was so fun meeting you in the Minneapolis airport recently. Oh my gosh, I enjoyed our conversation and getting to know you a bit. And this is all in old-fashioned writing. Oh my gosh, look at that. It's so tiny, it's beautiful.

Michelle: 4:25

I write to thank you for the fantastic idea for the hostess gift and thank you note for my trip. It worked out perfectly. I managed to find which was the host's favorite brewery and finagle a visit there the night before I left with them. While there I excused myself and bought a gift card. That night I wrote my thank you note, enclosed the gift and left the note on their kitchen counter as I was leaving. It couldn't have gone better. All because of your help, I'm heading to California tomorrow and you can be sure I'll have some thank you notes in my bag, just in case I travel with thank you cards.

Jennifer: 5:00

Oh, my God, so do I.

Michelle: 5:08

Something I do.

Jennifer: 5:08

I do too, and so it just says wishing you the best in your family and with your family and career and so so, okay, you were outside of you know your area, yes, and you just meet someone at the. I mean that is Michelle and you just meet someone at I mean that is Michelle. Right, you meet someone at the airport and look the connection that you made it is.

Michelle: 5:26

And three times a charm. Three seems to be the magic number. I checked in with this woman. We went through security with this, I went together and then I was going around. I've been sitting at conference for two days straight, so I wanted to get my steps in. I found myself a Starbucks that's how she knows, I guess I love Starbucks and then we ended up sitting together at the gate learning about each other, and she was telling me about her problem, which I was able to have a solution for because I had thank you cards in my backpack.

Jennifer: 5:57

Oh my gosh. So what is connecting to you? What does connecting mean to you?

Michelle: 6:04

You first mentioned it that I like to be present, and really connecting to me is being present and spending time. Connecting can be not people think of connecting with always other people, but it's also connecting with yourself, with always other people, but it's also connecting with yourself and you have to connect with yourself before you can actually share yourself with others. And as mothers, as a wife, as friends, colleagues, you wear so many oh so sorry, you wear so many different hats that we forget about ourselves. So I like to connect, I connect. One of my favorite things is the spa.

Jennifer: 6:46

Oh, yes, I love the spa. I love to journal.

Michelle: 6:48

I have my journal here and just draw or just journal and write words and just get in connecting connecting with myself, right, and then connecting could be learning about other people. That really intrigues me because everyone has a story to tell and I always like to hear it, whether it's the good or the not so good, because we all learn from that and growing up. So I'm an extrovert, as you know, but I can also be an introvert and I could be very shy and so just learning about people and I was not really an open person that would share. And as I get older and have a family and Naples has embraced me with welcome and open arms and I've learned to share over my years thanks to some of my mentors- what do you think it?

Jennifer: 7:49

what do you think that switch was that turned you from not wanting to share and kind of being that introvert, to being more of an extrovert and wanting to share. What was it? Or anything in particular?

Michelle: 8:02

I would say it all starts with our roots and our foundation and where we come from and what we learn, our behavior, what we're exposed to, our environment, our experiences. That has a lot to do with that and growing up, my parents, my mother. My mom was a single mom raising me and she was working all the time so I really didn't have her as to guide me and speak about anything.

Jennifer: 8:32

I'm assuming that when you're connecting, there's a lot of benefits that you get besides. Just, you know, I met someone. You know there's got to be health benefits. There's got to be something that happens within ourselves when we connect.

Michelle: 8:48

Yes, and so, as I always, always thought about, what is it that our bodies do? And our bodies actually release hormones. And I thought it was just oxytocin, right, I mean, that's the only thing I learned, but there are actually four different hormones that our body releases, and it's oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin and endorphins and it releases hormones that does something in our brains that actually helps support our wellbeing.

Jennifer: 9:29

All from connecting.

Michelle: 9:30

All from connecting.

Jennifer: 9:32

I mean, you know, I can see a lot of that, because a lot of times after you've gone to, it's kind of like you go to a big conference, right, and you leave that conference energized and like I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that Right.

Michelle: 9:48

I've been to those.

Jennifer: 9:49

And you know what I'm talking about.

Michelle: 9:51

I've been to Tony Robbins. Oh, so you know the ultimate. It was unleashing the power within, and I have to bring it back to that that brought me here. That was about 2011 or 12. And we had to do visions and all these different. It was a four day long conference. I even walked the fire. It was amazing, oh my gosh. But we had to do a vision of where we see ourselves and how we want to grow and how we want to better ourselves. And it could be professional or personal, and I had a vision that my husband's son younger at the time, he must have been three or four that I had in my vision and all I saw during this exercise with the powerful conference is that we were holding hands and we were on a beach next to a body of water. That was in 2011. And here I am in 2024. We moved 2020. And it's unbelievable because that vision came up again and it's almost as if I manifested, and it took a while, but here I am.

Jennifer: 11:03

Right, I feel like I've known you longer than that.

Michelle: 11:05

I know Me too. That's really crazy Me too.

Jennifer: 11:09

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Michelle: 12:06

Those text messages drive me crazy.

Jennifer: 12:08

How about the chain ones? Right? I don't like those there's 10 of you on the same chat. You're like stop texting.

Michelle: 12:15

Or even just emojis, or there's no substance in that, and so we talked about presence. Really important is to share your purpose and place an intention, and what helps me, too, is a goal, and it could be anywhere from connecting with a parent, a colleague, any loved one, or even in business and I especially in business. I like to state my goal and my intention, because we are always so busy and we have time, which is a commodity, and I always ask during my appointments how much time do you have? That's smart. And then be genuine. You have to be yourself and then stay connected, because you can make that first connection and then it fizzles, or maybe later down the road you reconnect.

Jennifer: 13:17

So, talking about that connection, so I meet you today? Yes, what should I do after you know today's come and gone? What would you do? Do you send a thank you note? Do you send a little note of hi, it was great to meet you. Do you send a text, an email? I do.

Michelle: 13:34

Even beforehand.

Jennifer: 13:35

What do you mean? Even beforehand you got a basket. I know I have a basket sitting under my feet. I can't wait to see what's in it. She's just gracious, like that's what I mean, like you came bearing gifts, right, yes so. But let's say you meet somebody, let's say you're at a conference and you meet someone. Do you get their information? And then what do you do with that afterwards?

Michelle: 14:01

That's a really great point. I love to take pictures and selfies, even though I'm not really a big digital person. We have people in our circle that's trying to get me on social.

Jennifer: 14:12

Oh well.

Michelle: 14:13

So I do have follow-ups that I have to do. Trying to get me on social, oh well. So I do have follow ups that I have to do, and what I plan on doing is sending photos to the people I took photos with and just doing a little blurb of what I took away during our connection at conference.

Jennifer: 14:29

And that is just very, it's genuine, it's personable, yes, and memorable.

Michelle: 14:36

It is very memorable.

Jennifer: 14:37

Because they're not going to forget you.

Michelle: 14:40

Right, there was so many connections that I made and I actually did a mapping, so I mentioned that connecting with myself, I brought my journal because I was mapping you ever did a mapping no, never Of your connections.

Jennifer: 14:56

No, never, ever.

Michelle: 14:57

We have LinkedIn. It's very easy, right, because they do it for you with the algorithm and they tell you who you're connected with If you and I connected. It'll tell you how many mutual connections we have.

Jennifer: 15:09

But you did it on paper, you guys. You can hold it up and we can see it on our video.

Michelle: 15:13

I did a mapping of my connections just this past weekend and it was overflowing on the top part and I didn't want to draw on that part because I have another drawing on there of my son and so I just started myself in the middle and then I did family on one side, work on top community and Naples, and then school, which is my son on top community and Naples and then school which is my son.

Jennifer: 15:43

Wow, and I surrounded it, but then it branches out.

Michelle: 15:45

You can't fit that on that size paper. Michelle, I want to do an oak tag like the big poster board that I did for you. Yeah, I think you need that. I think you've graduated well beyond that, but it's amazing to see when you map out who you know how it integrates with each other. We have so many mutual connections in our circle.

Jennifer: 16:05

We do, we do have a lot we do. But when you put it on paper like that, it just makes it so much more impressive, and so not even impressive, but just eye-opening maybe.

Michelle: 16:17

Like wow, I would like to continue with that and also maybe do an exercise with a circle of our friends. That would be wow, I would like to continue with that and also maybe do an exercise with a circle of our friends. That would be very very cool, but you keep this journal I do in my backpack, I travel with it, wow.

Michelle: 16:30

And do you write down stuff every day, not every day. When things come to me, it could be anywhere from the business that I plan on launching. That's so awesome. And then I have a lot of my notes and recordings. I do a lot of drawings Wow, I have drawings. I have a circle of friends up in New York and we do Inktober in October oh my gosh, and they're all my art friends. And so we have prompts that we have, and each person selects it each year.

Jennifer: 17:03

Wow, that's so cool.

Michelle: 17:04

And so that's my way of connecting being here in Naples with my friends, my best friends up in the Northeast.

Jennifer: 17:12

So you never lose that connection. You know it's or you. You come back to it. Yes, right, it's always there.

Michelle: 17:18

There's some form of connection and we can all connect somehow.

Jennifer: 17:22

Right Now, how important has connecting been in your business life and now wanting to create a new adventure or new venture Like, how important has that been or how important do you perceive it to be when you start your new company?

Michelle: 17:35

It's really important and just the other day I was recognized. Yes, you were Again. That's part of my shyness.

Jennifer: 17:46

She's like being so humble over here. It was an amazing award. It was an amazing award it is, and you should be very proud and tell everyone.

Michelle: 17:55

And Karen, who you had right before. She's on the board and she called me yesterday to congratulate me. Yesterday morning she said I had to call you. You're my first caller and I just want to congratulate you. It made me sad that I wasn't there when you received your award and it's a big deal because I had to ask her how many members do we have in our group and she said 60.

Michelle: 18:19

And to be selected, have in our group and she said 60 and to be selected, and this lizzy award is for me. It really brought me joy and fulfillment, and so how is that going to help me in the future with my business? We have a lot of connections and there are a lot of people who can use me as a resource. Sometimes people need connections. That's how I plan on expanding that.

Jennifer: 18:48

I think it's valuable and I think you're going to do great because, again, I think of you as the ultimate connector. Thank you. If our listeners want to get in touch with you, michelle, how can they do that?

Michelle: 18:59

They can either call me directly. My cell phone is 201-406-8574. I am on LinkedIn. You can look me up Michelle Tabby two L's and my last name is T-A-B-I. And also you can visit me at Park Shore at the residence in by Marriott Naples.

Jennifer: 19:20

Fabulous. I loved our conversation this morning about connecting because, again, I believe that you are connecting so many wonderful individuals and businesses and it's very much appreciated and you're so genuine. Thank you, thank you very much for having me.