- Make a list of all of the people in your life that matter to you, personally and professionally. Spreadsheet is fine, or a piece of paper. Doesn’t matter what tool.
- Create a list of details you’d like to track for your relationships. Some examples are below.
- Identify your VIPs - 5-10 people who are the most important non-family relationships in your life. For each, fill in the details based on your relationship profile.
- Identify your 5 ❤️ - the people in your life who you could be hugely helpful to in the next 3 months. Fill in their details. Brainstorm a plan for how you want to be helpful.
- For the rest of your list, identify a cadence for communication - weekly, monthly, quarterly, 2x a year, etc. Set reminders appropriately.
- Take 5-10 minutes each day to fill in the relationship profile for a couple contacts. Feel free to take your time - you can fill it in progressively.
- If you have friends who have details that you really should know but you don’t, go through their FB or IG accounts - you can often find anniversaries, kids names and ages, etc through their old posts.
Example Relationship Profile:
These are simply meant to be ideas - make it work for you.
Basics
- Name
- Company Name
- Title
- Business Address
- Home Address
- Phone Number
- Email Address
- Birthday
Family
- Spouse’s name
- Spouse’s birthday
- If spouse works, what does she do?
- What is their spouse into?
- Anniversary
- Kids names and ages (optional - kids birthdays)
- Children’s interests
- Where do their kids go to school?
- Any major life issues or problems? Divorce, health scare, etc?
Background
- Hometown
- Where they went to college (optional - when they graduated, and their degree)
- Were they in a fraternity or sorority? Which one?
- Did they play sports? Which ones? To what level?
- Extracurricular activities
- Do they remember college fondly? Do they still follow the school’s teams?
- Were they in the military? What rank when they finished? What’s their attitude to the military?
- Where did they work previously?
Interests
- Are they a part of any trade associations or organizations?
- Are they involved with any nonprofit organizations?
- Are they politically active? Which party? Any issues they care a lot about?
- Are they involved with any religious organizations? How important is their faith?
- Hobbies or activities?
- What topics are they super interested in?
Lifestyle
- What’s their health situation?
- Do they drink? If so, how much? Do they have a favorite drink? If not, are they offended by others drinking?
- Do they smoke (cigarettes or marijuana)?
- What are their favorite places to go for lunch? Dinner?
- What are their vacation habits?
- Are they interested in any sports? Favorite teams?
- What adjectives would you use to describe them?
Goals
- What are their long term goals for themselves or their family?
- What are their short term goals?
- Any acute issues they need help with?
- Are there relationships they want to develop?
- Are there skills they want to learn?