Today I spent 20 minutes on a zoom call with a perfect stranger.
“Would you like to play a game with me?” she said with a twinkle in her eye.
I knew I was in exactly the right place.
She pulled a card from the Campfire Card deck and invited us into the prompt: Who is someone outside your immediate family who’s had a profound positive impact on you?
She told me about the neighbor who restored her faith in humanity.
I told her about the mentor who introduced me to The Three Principles understanding, a conversation that radically changed the course of my life, and how that discovery connected me me to friends, clients and even my partner.
Those twenty minutes flew by on dragon wings.
It was part of Laura Khalil’s 100 Conversations Project, a challenge to speak with 100 people in the month of December without an agenda. No pitching. Just real human connection.
A few days earlier, I’d met Laura at a coworking event about networking. We were doing the usual future-planning thing: naming the network of clients, collaborators, and connections intentionally connect with in 2026.
A few people brought up the question:
“How do you avoid wasting your time on a call that doesn’t go anywhere?”
The question says so much about the expectation and transaction we typically operate under.
Here’s what I believe:
Spending time with someone I genuinely want to talk to is never a waste of time. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say that spending time fully present with any human is a spectacular use of my time, regardless of the outcome.
We miss opportunities to touch the beauty of another soul because we’re so focused on productivity and efficiency.
We’re trained to measure the outcome of conversations, and if it doesn’t lead somewhere tangible, it’s stealing time from “real work.”
But if you’re in the business of helping, serving, or creating anything with or for humans, connection is where the magic happens.
It’s where acquaintances become clients and strangers become friends. It’s where you really learn what people need and discover how you’re uniquely qualified to help them.
It’s where we’re reminded of our shared humanity and that we’re never in this alone.
Laura’s project is a return to simple, ordinary connection. And I think it’s glorious.
If you feel a longing for real conversation without needing it to “go somewhere,” you might love this.
You can learn more about Laura’s 100 Conversations Project and sign up to chat with her here:
https://laura-khalil.com/curious
Yours in love and play,
Steph 🐲❤️🔥
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