A stranger in town, Bruce Kasanoff* came up with an innovative idea to meet interesting people while engaging in his favourite pastime of skiing.
Six years ago, when I moved to the skiing resort of Park City, Utah, I had a problem.
New to the area, I didn’t know many people. To make matters worse, making new friends has never been my strong suit.
I thought about joining the local Toastmasters group, but — no kidding — it only met at 7am.
Going to meet-ups in local bars wasn’t appealing, because I don’t drink.
Come on, Bruce, I thought. Think out of the box.
After a couple of missteps I came up with Chairlift Chats.
The idea was pretty simple: If you are a local or an out-of-town visitor with an interesting story to tell, reach out to me and we can ski a few runs together.
In between our runs, we’ll chat on the chairlift. I then take the most interesting piece of our conversation and share it on social media.
This exposes each person’s insights to a new audience.
In this manner, I have met Michelle MacLaren (pictured), director and producer of the movie, Breaking Bad.
Then there was Jack Carr, author of bestselling thrillers, and Ken Block, who has racked up more than half a billion views for his gymkhana viral video series.
This was followed by Shannon Bahrke, the pink-haired skier who won a 2002 Olympic silver medal right here in Deer Valley — plus many other fascinating folks.
So once again this winter I’ll be scheduling, Chairlift Chats. If you have an interesting story to share and you will be in Park City for skiing, by all means please reach out to me.
I am sharing Chairlift Chats to encourage you to think differently about how you cross paths with others who are curious, passionate, highly engaging and genuine.
It would be nice if they just knocked on your door, but that seldom happens unless you do something proactive to catch their attention.
The more creative you are about broadening your circle of friends, the richer your life is likely to be.
What do you do to attract interesting people?
*Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of The Journey, a newsletter for positive, uplifting and accomplished professionals. He is also an executive coach and social media ghostwriter for entrepreneurs. He can be contacted at kasanoff.com.
This article first appeared at kasanoff.com.
