28. Courageous Connections: Networking for Introverts in Retirement

Are you an introvert nearing retirement and looking forward to the end of the need to attend networking events? Think again! 

In this episode of 'Courageous Retirement,' host Vona Johnson challenges you to rethink networking as a critical tool for maintaining connections in retirement. Sharing her recent experiences and offering actionable advice, Vona explores how continuing to network can lead to a life filled with purpose, joy, and community during the Best Season. 

Learn how to use your faith and the Holy Spirit to guide you in making new, meaningful friendships. Don't miss out on these insightful tips and spiritual encouragement to enhance your retirement journey.

00:00 Introduction: Embracing Networking in Retirement
01:02 Personal Experience: Networking at a Christian Conference
01:53 The Importance of Networking in Retirement
03:55 Practical Tips for Networking
04:49 Overcoming Networking Challenges
05:37 Exploring Networking Opportunities
07:06 Authenticity in Building Connections
10:12 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Scripture: 
"Two are better than one. If either of them falls down, one can help the other one up."   Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10

Quotes from Vona:
"Think of networking as building your future support system. It's a system that you're going to need to get through some of the challenges that are coming in life. Don't wait until you need people in your life to start making new friends."

 "As much as I like being alone, I do not want to live my life alone."

Link to join ClubMore: https://ClubMore.Live 

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to Engage Your Faith and Live Your More as you reap the benefits of Courageous Retirement!

To watch the video, check out my YouTube Channel!

Learn more about the show, author Vona Johnson, and more at CourageousRetirement.com!

Schedule a free 15 minute Your Path to More call with Vona.

Transcript

0:05

if you're an introvert looking forward to retirement, one of the things you may be celebrating is not having to go to networking events anymore. I know it can be uncomfortable. It's almost up there with public speaking. Introverts do not like to walk into a room full of people and start mingling, right? But I wanna challenge that idea today. I want to encourage you to reevaluate how you look at networking. We can call it something else if you want, but I challenge you to continue to network well into your retirement years. I hope you'll join me as I share what that looks like. Do you fear? What lies beyond retirement? What if it's a gateway to a life filled with purpose, meaning, and adventure rather than an end? Discover peace and fulfillment as you boldly enter this new chapter in Courageous Retirement, a Christian podcast. I'm your host, author, and coach Vona Johnson. Let's get started. Last week I had the opportunity to go to a Christian conference. It's not built as a networking event, but anytime you're with a group of people, you have the opportunity to network. And I got to see some old friends and I got to make some new friends and it was, it was really, really. Nice. Yes. I was worn out and exhausted from all of the talking and mingling while I was there, and I got to go shut myself in my room when I got home and, and recharge my battery like we introverts like to do. But I'm so blessed that I went. That following Monday, I was to be the speaker at Toastmasters and it just so happened that the project that was coming up for me, was Make Connections through Networking. And I thought, how perfect is that? What, wonderful timing. I'm gonna go ahead and talk about networking. And, check that Toastmasters project off the list. And as I was working on the presentation, I realized how important it really is that we continue to network. You think about it, and as we get along in age, things start to change. You know, we have friends that as they're retiring, they're moving away to be with family. Sometimes illness makes people be more isolated than they were when they were, healthier and, and still in the work world. Of course, there's always that chance that our friends, our circle, will die. And so we, we need to continually find those people that bring us joy in life and help help us live life, in the manner that God intends us to live life. I talk about how retirement is the best season and I really believe that it is, but we are not meant to live our best season alone, we are meant to share and enjoy the, the things that we can do in retirement with those that we care about. Connection is so vital to our spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing. God designed us for community, and networking is just one way that we can continue that community and keep moving forward in retirement. If you've struggled with networking in the past, honestly, this is where you wanna shift your thinking. It's not walking in and finding out where your connections are gonna bring you business and things like that. That was always really hard for me, and I truly shifted my perspective a long time ago and just looked at it as making friends and new relationships. Finding those people who have similar interests and you can sit and just talk about things for hours. Sometimes it's fun things. You know, like my earlier podcast on geocaching, that might be one of the things. And also maybe similar interests as far as our health challenges or in like, in my situation, with parents with dementia. I, really appreciate the friends that I have who are walking that same path. And we can talk about similar experiences and encourage and support one another along that path. So where do you go to, network? Where do you find these new friends? Well, the obvious one for those of us. That our Christians is a church. We find people that have similar values there and, and there are always things going on in a church setting that gives you an opportunity to go and meet people. It can be hard. Just because it's church doesn't mean it's easier. When, you know there's a ladies group or a men's group that's inviting people, it's hard to walk into that room alone. So what I encourage you to do is when there's an event and you don't have anybody to go with you. If you have friends that are in that congregation, pick up the phone, shoot'em a text, and then invite them to go with you. But if you don't have somebody to go with, you go anyway. Go ahead and register and then make yourself do it when it's time. Because we're introverts, we're gonna wanna just cancel and say, ah, I don't wanna do this. I don't wanna go. Do it. Just go. First of all, my best advice is to, as you're driving to the event and as you walk up to the, the building and into the room, be praying. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to someone who may be needing a friend or that maybe has similar interests and could be a good friend for you. Then when you walk into that room, you know, look around, uh, find somebody that you know that you can go engage in conversation. Or another thing that I really like to do is find that person that's standing off on their own or sitting at a table all alone. I love to just go and say, oh, hey, do you mind if I sit here? And then engage them in conversation.'cause you know that if they're sitting there all by themselves, they too are wishing they had stayed home. And so you already have that in common. Other places that you can network, and maybe we should use a different word, and other places that you can find new friends. Are volunteer opportunities you can go, do, you know the, like we have a food bank here in our community, or you can serve a community banquet. One of the things that I did this year was I did door hangers for our right to life get out the vote campaign and so I went out and hung door hangers and met people that way. Of course, there's always book clubs, hobby meetups, other community classes that you can take. Uh, the local chamber of commerce often has events or other service organizations have events that you can go and get involved that way. And then another idea that sometimes I think we forget about is there are so many online communities. Um, so get involved and if you need some ideas, I can point you in some directions. I am in a few of communities where they just get together regularly and talk about real life stuff. There are book clubs. There's so many communities that I'm involved with that have book clubs, and you can join that or get involved with a Bible study in your church, or start one. If nobody's doing one that you're interested in. Start a Bible study. Talk to your pastor. Find out how you can be the person to initiate that and get it going. I know, I know it's a stretch, but remember, sometimes our true purpose is just beyond our comfort zone, so I encourage you to think of ways that you can be doing that. One of the things that I think we have a tendency to do when we are making new friends, meeting new people is we try to be guarded with what we talk about and not share things that might be somewhat vulnerable for us. I'm going to encourage you to throw that idea away. Be prepared to talk about things that you're struggling with Chances are someone else in that group is, or they know someone that is, and they might make a connection for you. The thing is, is if we put on that facade, if we, we go into that group, that setting, whatever it is with this cheery, I'm all is well kind of attitude. But it's not really the case. We, we give off the wrong vibe. Not that a cheery attitude should never be the wrong vibe, but if it's not who you are and you're not being authentic, then when you get comfortable with that person and you take that facade down, you may find that you don't have as much in common as you thought you did because you weren't being authentic. So I just really encourage you to just be you, relax, have fun, and find someone who has those similar interests and even if they don't have similar interests, when you start talking, try something new. Like I'd mentioned before, geocaching, that's something I really wanna do. If there's someone listening and you're in the area where I live, let's go do it. Reach out and let's find a way. Another thing that I know that people are doing is just exercising, going for walks or we have a, a lazy river at our new facility in our community, and I know all kinds of people that are walking at, you know, just getting out and getting exercise and creating new friendships that way. The point is, if your feeling like your friendship group is dwindling, get out there. Take that one small step that you need to, to get out there and start meeting new people. Think of networking as building your future support system. That's a system that you're going to need to get through some of the challenges that are coming in life. Don't wait until you need people in your life to start making new friends. Start doing it now. So just remember, you know, courage. When we talk about courageous retirement, it doesn't always mean boldness. It doesn't always mean sharing your faith story right at the get go. Sometimes it just means saying hello to someone new and starting up a conversation. Maybe something as simple as the weather. A verse that I encourage you to think about is from Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10,"Two are better than one. If either of them falls down, one can help the other one up." And we need community. We are built for community. And so I just really encourage you to find those people that you can encourage and support and that will encourage and support you as well. I wanna challenge you to think of one person that you could connect with this week. Maybe it's an old friend you just haven't communicated with for a long time. Reach out and see if they wanna go for a walk or a drink, or join a Bible study or whatever with you. Make that effort. You know, another thing you can do and it's, it's not fully fleshed out yet, but I have created ClubMore, and really right now it's just my newsletter, giving encouragement and support through this courageous retirement process and how to finish well. So join that and I will be sharing ideas on How to join communities through that. I will put the link in the the show notes, so I encourage you to do that. You don't have to network like you did when you were back in the business world, but find a way that feels comfortable and maybe a little bit of a stretch, but that is an easy way to step into it for you and then just go and be yourself. One of the things that I want to close with is to remind you, I'm truly an introvert. You may not know that I can sometimes be that outgoing introvert that I really do love people, but when I need to recharge my battery. I need to go and be alone to do that. And that's how I know that I'm an introvert. One of the things that came out of my Toastmasters talk that I didn't realize I was gonna say until I said it, but it was truly the Holy Spirit, and it really felt profound to me is that as much as I like being alone, I do not want to live my life alone. And I don't think you do either. So I'm gonna leave you with that. And I just want to thank you so much for stopping by today. It's always such a blessing to have you here, and I just encourage you to go engage your faith, use your faith to ask the Holy Spirit to show you where to go to find those new friends. And then just use the courage, all the courage that you have to step into your courageous retirement. Have a beautiful day.