POSITIVE NETWORKING BLOG

How we met Marie-Josee

Written by: Gayle
Posted: October 29th, 2011

It was last call at the Red Lobster. Things were pretty quiet in Pottstown, PA, which was our last stop on a ten-day road trip. Judy and I were feeling every bit the tired road warriors, drowning our homesickness in a big glass of wine before walking across the parking lot to the Quality Inn. You get the picture.

We had just finished our keynote for the Tri County Chamber of Commerce and the two of us were doing a debrief. They were wonderful group of people and it is an amazing chamber of commerce—very dynamic. We didn’t feel particularly dynamic but I said to Judy that something really great came out of this event and it was this. As we were leaving the Chamber speaking event, a woman came up and introduced herself. She told us that she really enjoyed the discussion of social intelligence and positive psychology in our keynote. She had recently received her Master of Positive Psychology–a new and exciting field! Her name was Marie-Josee Shaar. We only chatted for a few minutes. I told Judy that making that connection with Marie-Josee was worth the whole trip and the 18 hours of travel time (connections from hell) to get home. And it was true. We have stayed connected with her via email over the past couple of years and then last year Marie-Josee told us about a course at the University of Pennsylvania being taught by Tal Ben-Shahar on positive psychology. We immediately signed up.  It was an intensive online course and one of the best investments in evolving our own teaching of the art, science and practice of Positive Networking®. And to think, we would have missed this great experience in personal development if we hadn’t had that chance meeting with Marie-Josee. She’s a friend and colleague and it all happened with just a 5 minute conversation.

Learn more about the amazing Marie-Josee and her new book, Smarts and Stamina.

Posted In: Build your network tips, Positive Networking thoughts